Can I become a hero?
by Korzark
Summary: A story exploring the parallels of Ruby and Jaune's lives as they try to understand what exactly it means to become a "hero." What can they do to achieve their ideals and what sacrifices will they be willing to make? (Medieval-like AU) [Ruby's half of the story]
1. Prologue

**Prologue:**

A middle-aged man calmly made his way to the large mansion at the top of the hill. Despite the impressive shield and the equally large sword that he had slung over his back, he seemed to have no trouble carrying its weight. He did stop occasionally to adjust the long strap that safely secured the large sword that rested on his back, but that was due to the uncomfortable the way it threatened to slide off his now-thinner shoulders. He had lost some weight after going for days without a steady source of food, but despite that he walked casually, as if he hadn't just gone on a two-week long journey to complete a life-threatening mission across the country.

As he stopped to stretch his limbs a bit before making the final steps toward his home, he heard a sound from the bushes. The two weeks of grueling combat should have made him more sensitive to any foreign movements or sounds, but the poorly concealed giggle that followed it calmed him down completely.

Putting on a slight smile, he pretended not to notice the sound as he walked down the pathway leading up to his home. The small bushes by the path rustled and giggled along with him, until finally a small shadow burst from them.

With a shriek of delight, the small boy rushed at his father's leg in an attempt to latch onto it, but was quickly stopped as he felt himself being lifted up by the back of his shirt until brought up to a height where he was face to face with the man he admired so much. Jaune only grinned as he realized that his father had only brought him closer to attacking range as he reached out to grab his father's ears as tightly as he could.

His father tugged gently at Jaune's arms and legs in an attempt to dislodge the boy from his face, but Jaune refused to let go and simply bombarded him with questions.

"How was your mission? Did you win? Did you save the world from the bad guys again? Play with me, please?" Jaune said, practically shouting in his father's ears.

His father gave him a weak grin as he finally managed to pull Jaune off of his head. He held Jaune up in the air, out of his arm's reach this time, and thought about his request for a moment before gently setting him down, only to have Jaune latch onto his leg. Jaune looked up hopefully at his father as he waited for his response.

His father merely bend down and patted Jaune on the back. Bringing his face down to Jaune so that he could see the wrinkles on his face, he calmly explained that he was very tired and that he desperately needed some food and rest.

"Oh… Sorry for not realizing father," Jaune said, slightly shocked after he realized his own selfishness. He lowered his head, let go of his father's leg, and dusted himself off.

At the sight of this, his father's expression softened. Patting Jaune on the back, he gave him a smile, a thumbs up, and a short promise that he would be ready to play with him all day tomorrow if Jaune told his mother and the rest of the family about his arrival.

Jaune's eyes brightened up at his father's words as he straightened his posture and gave his father a smiling salute. "Yes sir," he said, imitating the soldiers he had seen at the walls of the city. "I'll let everyone know you're home father." He ran towards the mansion at full speed, bringing up tiny clouds of dirt and dust in his wake.

"Hey everyone," Jaune shouted as he practically crashed through the doors of the house. "Mom, get dinner ready! Dad's finally home!"

* * *

A young girl walked through a dense forest with a small basket in her hands.

She seemed calm to the point of emotionlessness. She didn't bother to look around the forest, even as she heard the sounds of the small woodland creatures scurrying around her and she barely even moved her eyes from the direction she was going. Only deviating from her path to avoid muddy areas of the road that would dirty her shoes, she marched on quietly.

Though most girls her age would probably cower away from the shadows, she didn't seem to mind that the path was getting darker as she walked further into the forest. She didn't mind the dark and even considered it to be soothing, so she continued to walk along the path that even the adults in the nearby village feared to tread. They told their own children to stay away from the forest or else they would be eaten. They also told each other the same thing. The Grimm lived there and unlike the imaginary monsters that the parents in most other villages told their children about, the Grimm were quite real.

Despite that the young girl continued on her way, her only care in the world being that she shouldn't drop her small basket. Nobody had told her that the forest was a scary place, so she never even thought that she was in any danger in the first place. Maybe she was a brave girl, but that probably wasn't the reason why she walked through the forest so fearlessly.

Of course she wasn't walking through the forest for fun. She and her small basket had a destination. She was just returning from her short errand to the nearby village and now she was going straight back home. Or at least that was her plan.

"Hey there kid," said a slurred voice from behind her. The girl started to turn to greet the owner of the voice, but stopped as the man reached down and ruffled her hair. She pouted a bit as she reached up to fix her hair, but once she did the man reached down and messed it up again. After repeating this process once more she sighed and simply accepted her new hairstyle. Finally turning to face the old man behind her, she looked up at him and asked him why he was out of the house.

"What?" said the man as crouched down to be at eye level with the six-year old girl and stared back at her with a goofy grin on his face, "I didn't know that I was under house arrest. Is it so hard to believe that I wanted to see you as soon as possible?"

The girl coughed a bit as the alcoholic's breath hit her. She flailed around in an exaggerated manner, falling gently to the floor and lightly smacking the man's face as she did. He laughed and stood back up.

"Sorry Ruby," he said as he leaned down to pick her up off the ground. "I forgot that I was just drinking. That probably means it's working right?"

Sticking her tongue out at the man, Ruby reached down to dust off her skirt. Luckily she didn't see any mud on her skirt but as she patted herself down just in case, she seemed to remember the basket that was in her hands. She immediately presented it to the man as he gave her a smile.

"I was wondering when you would remember about that," he said as he took the basket from her. He opened the lid and sifted through its contents, tossing aside a few small pieces of paper and envelopes. There was writing on them and though Ruby still didn't know how to read most of the words she saw, she recognized some of the words. 'Thank you,' 'Qrow,' and 'to' were the only words she could recognize, but despite that she still felt proud that she could read them in the first place, especially when the handwriting was so messy.

She tugged on the bottom of Qrow's shirt to get his attention, but before she could brag to him about her small achievement, he reached out and stuffed a small sandwich in her mouth. "Courtesy of my favourite Mrs. What's-her-name," he said as he took out his own sandwich and took a bite. "Usually they just send me money as a thank you, but looks like this particular lady was grateful that I avenged her husband and sent us a bit of homemade food as well. With this we won't need to go down to the markets for another day or two. Man, those villagers make it a bit hard for me to hate them."

Qrow closed the basket and patted Ruby lightly on the back, motioning towards the path. They walked in silence with only the soft sound of chewing to accompany their footsteps. Ruby finished her sandwich a bit faster than Qrow and reached out to tug at the bottom of his shirt. Qrow shifted the basket to his other arm so he could continue to eat while letting the basket hang off his elbow and reached down with his newly freed hand. Ruby took it and they walked down the path to their home.

* * *

Despite his father insisting that he go to sleep Jaune stayed restless as he fidgeted in his bed, struggling to get comfortable. Looking back up at his father, he made a suggestion while trying to hold back his excitement. "Maybe you could tell me some more stories about the Arc legends, father," he said as he eagerly awaited his father's response.

His father pretended to sigh, but the Arc legends were a soft spot for him and Jaune knew it. No matter how tired his father claimed to be, at the mention of the Arc family the old man seemed to have boundless amounts of energy.

Holding back a smile, Jaune almost jumped in joy when his father agreed to tell him a story. He tucked himself in as his father sat down on the floor. This time the story would be about the knight of freedom, Saxum Arc.

Saxum Arc was a legend of his time and now he was a legend in Jaune's time as well.

Jaune listened as his father told the story about how his great-great-grandfather was praised as a god of the battlefield. For the umpteenth time, he listened to how his appearance would be enough to make entire armies cower in fear and the forces of evil would be slain with a single swipe of the sword.

Saxum Arc had many titles, most of which Jaune had memorized. Aurelius told Jaune about how Saxum's allies knew him as 'The Knight of Freedom' and that any of his foolish enemies knew him simply as 'The God of Destruction.'

Aurelius warned Jaune that any tales that he told about Saxum might not have been true. Saxum may have been even stronger than the legends said. Most of the soldiers and historians who saw him in battle couldn't believe their eyes when they saw him fight, so it was very likely that they might have misjudged Saxum's abilities, simply because the truth was too absurd to believe.

Carried away in his own story, he only realized that Jaune was asleep when he gave a little grunt in his sleep. The old man looked down at Jaune and gave a small groan as he got up.

"Saxum Arc was your great-great-grandpa," the old man said as he started to get up off the floor. "Just like him, I carry the Arc name proudly and soon you will too."

As he walked towards the door, he turned around once again. "You're going to grow up to be something my son. You're an Arc. You're going to be a hero one day."

As if heard his father's words, the sleeping Jaune smiled.

* * *

The loud creak of the floorboards seemed to echo through the halls despite Qrow's best efforts to be as quiet as possible. He got up off the bed and, without turning on any of the lights, opened the closet door and started to inspect the clothes inside. Pulling out a worn out grey shirt, he pulled it over his head only to find that he had accidently tried to put one of his hands through a tear in the shirt, rather than the actual armhole. Shrugging at his mistake, he repositioned his arms so he could put his shirt on properly. Despite the lack of protection from the elements, he didn't seem to mind that a quarter of his upper body remained uncovered. It wasn't as if the shirt was going to survive the night anyways. Reaching under the bed to find his boots, he gave a small start as he heard the sound of small footsteps heading towards his room but once he realized that he had probably woken up Ruby, he continued to sweep his hand underneath his bed in hopes of finding proper footwear.

The door creaked open slowly to reveal a very tired looking Ruby who rubbed her eyes as she struggled to see what Qrow was doing in the darkness. "Hey there kid," Qrow said as he finally felt his fingers touching leather and pulled out his boots. "It's a bit late for you to be up. You won't grow if you don't get your sleep you know." Ruby only mumbled that she drank milk as she stepped into the room and propped herself onto Qrow's bed.

Finally finding his boots, Qrow pulled them out from underneath the bed and proceeded to put them on as Ruby asked him if he was going out again. "Yeah," he replied. "Aside from the incident with that one attack last week, it seems like it's been pretty calm in the village. They never learn do they? The attacks only happen when they feel safe and they become a bit more relaxed with their security."

He got up and patted himself down. "Qrow, selfless defender of the village. It's a pretty ironic name to call me isn't it? I'm just a hunter. All I do is hunt," he said as he walked towards the corner of his room to grab the weapon that rested against the wall.

Looking back at Ruby, he noticed that she was struggling to stay awake. He walked over to pick her up and cradle her, as gently as he could with only one free hand, and walked towards her room. Pushing the creaky door open with one foot, he managed to navigate his way through the darkness and set the small girl down. He wasn't so lucky when exiting the room and managed to bump into a small cupboard and knock down the basket that was on top.

Cursing quietly, he bend over to pick up Ruby's basket, gathering the food, money, and letters that fell out. Placing the basket back on its rightful place, he pushed open the door and started to leave.

Ruby looked up at the man in the doorway and simply took notice of how he always seemed to look different at night. In the daylight, his grin would always make him look goofy and his drunken gait would make him look like some sort of fool, but in the darkness his grin always seemed to look a bit sinister and his uneven posture made him look a bit alien. Despite this, Ruby never thought of Qrow as a scary person. She loved him way too much to even consider it.

This love also extended to some of Qrow's possessions. She hated the way how his alcohol smelled and after sneaking a bit for herself one day, she absolutely despised the taste. She didn't understand how anyone could like it, but alcohol was one of the few things that Ruby disliked about Qrow. She didn't mind how he wore tattered clothes all the time despite being able to afford nice clothes for her. He always told her that it was a "fashion statement" but even if she didn't believe him when he told her that the ladies always loved it, it somehow suited him.

One thing about Qrow that Ruby heavily admired was the way he looked whenever he would go out at night. It wasn't his sinister grin, creepy posture, or tattered clothes that she admired. It was the way he would almost transform from a standard middle aged man to a confident fighter. This transformation, obviously being helped by the presence of the massive weapon in his hands.

It was a scythe. A huge scythe whose size made him look small in comparison. It didn't even seem like it was built for fighting, but Ruby felt an unnatural power that exuded from it. It was crude in every sense of the word. It looked almost homemade and Qrow had admitted to her that he had forged the "extra additions" himself without any prior experience. Nobody who saw the weapon would ever deny that it looked stupid.

The scythe had three blades. To be specific, the scythe had one blade and two blades literally glued on with molten iron.

Ruby's thoughts were interrupted as Qrow stepped out of the doorway and let the creaky door swing back in its place.

…

Now that she had no reason to stay awake, she strangely felt like she couldn't fall asleep. She didn't have any deep regrets that plagued her mind or any worries about what the future held. She was just a six-year old kid. It was probably just a random burst of energy that woke her up, but now that she was wide awake she didn't feel like lying down in bed.

She got up and sat there for a bit, wondering about what she could even do so late in the night. Looking around the room, she noticed a small piece of paper laying on the ground.

She went over to pick it up. From the unfamiliar writing, she figured that it was one of the letters that fell out of the basket when Qrow knocked it over. Bringing it over to the window, she tried to hold it against the small amount of moonlight that penetrated through the canopy of the forest. Unlike most of the letters she had seen before, this one had a small drawing on it along with a sloppily written message. She gathered that perhaps a kid around her age had sent Qrow a letter, thanking him for his recent bought of heroism.

Ruby read the words first. One of the words was familiar enough for her to recognize immediately, despite the horrid writing of the child who sent it. 'Qrow' was among her favourite words to write and read. The other word was a bit unfamiliar to her, but she managed to spell it out. 'H' 'E' 'R' 'O'. She tilted her head as she sounded it out. She had heard the word before, but wasn't paying attention to what it had meant at the time. No matter, she would ask Qrow what it meant in the morning.

She shifted her attention to the drawing. She struggled to identify what it was a drawing of, but once she looked closer it dawned on her. It was a hilariously terrible drawing of Qrow. She giggled as she used her finger to trace over the mass of scribbles that she assumed to represent Qrow's dark hair. The trapezoidal shape, was probably his shirt and torso and for some reason he didn't have pants, and after having her fun with analyzing the crude picture, she walked over to her basket and placed the letter back in its rightful place.

Looking at it one last time, she grinned as she thought about showing it to Qrow when he came back. Though it was a terrible depiction, she had to admit that the poorly drawn hair and clothes actually resembled his unkempt nature perfectly. One criticism she had though, was that the artist of this particular piece had drawn Qrow with a large broadsword in hand. It was more of a difference in personal taste, but she preferred Qrow's scythe much more.

* * *

 **Here's the beginning of my story. Not much else to say. It's a story centering on the two protagonists, Ruby and Jaune, as they try understand what a hero is and how they can become one in their own ways. It's not clear in what I've written so far, but this story will be taking place in a fantasy RPG-esque AU setting.**

 **Originally it was going to be Jaune and Pyrrha, but it didn't work for various reasons.**

 **Updates will most likely be irregular, but I don't think I'll drop this before completion.**


	2. An infestation of Grimm

**[Changelog] Tiny edit to a tiny mistake that I found. Sorry for the needless update.**

* * *

With a big sigh, Ruby dropped her quill and put her head down on the table, taking care not to get her arms or hair in the wet ink. She put some effort into raising her head to admire her work, but decided halfway through that it was pointless. She was writing in her diary but seeing as nothing had happened in the past few days, she had nothing to write about.

She leaned back as she tried to find a new awkwardly comfortable position for her body. Qrow had been out for a few days, apparently out on a long hunt that he had been planning for a while, and exercising had gotten boring after a couple of repetitions, especially when her usual sparring partner was missing. She understood the necessity for basic training drills and such but even so, she enjoyed fighting much more. Qrow barely showed any sign of mercy to her, despite her being only eleven years old, but she enjoyed it that way. He took her seriously and it meant that if she ever won against him it would actually meant something.

Her boredom had devolved to the point where she even considered going to the town to try and talk to someone. Even if she knew that she probably wouldn't enjoy it, it was a better alternative to forgetting how to speak after not talking to anybody for so long.

Catching her own thoughts, she grimaced and shook her head. She didn't understand the villagers. At a certain age, she started to notice that everyone in the town pretended to like each other and pretended to be polite, but once their neighbor turned away they would spit on the ground that they stood on or once they found that someone didn't have money they would instantly turn hostile.

It never happened to her, but she didn't understand them. What made them act certain ways? How could she avoid their bad side and stay on their good? Rather than trying to find the answers to those questions, she instead decided to ignore the source of the problem.

Qrow was a much better alternative. Fighting was also fun. If she had those in her life, she didn't really need much else.

Therein lied the problem. She didn't have either at the moment and it was driving her crazy, but was it bad enough to make her want to talk to the villagers? After a bit of consideration she decided that the answer was no.

She decided to keep on doing what she had been doing for the past couple of days instead. Sleep, occasionally exercise, and eat. She lazily nodded to herself as she straightened up in her chair. She finally had a plan. It wasn't a good one, but it was a plan.

She got up and slowly moved towards the kitchen to complete phase one of her plan. Even though it was already around noon, she hadn't eaten anything yet and she was long overdue for a late breakfast. Even though she knew that she wouldn't be able to cook something that she would enjoy, her stomach's growling made it hard to ignore her need for food.

She walked into the kitchen and scanned the walls and counters for anything to eat, surprisingly not finding anything. Looking around the room, all the bowls and containers were empty. Sighing, Ruby started to walk around the house, looking for any sign of food.

After checking her own room and the outdoor storage shack, she headed to Qrow's room. It was quite possible that he had been hoarding some jerky for himself and though he preferred that Ruby gave him his privacy, he never forbade her from entering his room.

Unfortunately she realized that if there were any food in that room, she would never be able to find it. Thankfully she didn't smell any mould or anything rotten, but it looked like the room hadn't been cleaned or even touched for months. She had to assume that Qrow would just spy out a comfortable looking pile of clothes to sleep on whenever night came. That would probably be a much easier task than digging through everything to find a mattress.

The only part of the room that remained relatively clean and cared for was the large cupboard in the corner of the room. Though the doors were opened carelessly with some of the contents spilling out, Ruby could actually make out what was inside and didn't have to try and discern individual items from a large mass like she had to do with the rest of the room.

She saw a few of sets Qrow's clothes, his large broadsword, and a small pot. She approached the cabinet, hoping to find some food inside the pot but disappointingly, it was empty.

Stepping back out of the room, she begrudgingly accepted the fact that despite her plans to stay at home and do nothing, she would have to go down to the town and talk to people.

* * *

Jaune grimaced as he took off his shirt. Despite it being months since he had joined the training hall in hopes of becoming a squire, he couldn't get used to the intensity of the daily training drills. His arms still hurt after each drill and although it started to hurt less, he still had trouble raising his arms above his head at the end of the day.

He heard a sigh behind him as he felt a hand grab his own arm and lifted it up gently.

"Thanks Ren," Jaune mumbled as he felt another hand grab the back of his collar and pull off his shirt in one swift motion.

"Sorry for making you help me so often. It's really embarrassing that I can't get used to the training that we do," Jaune said as he opened a small drawer beside him and take out a towel. "I mean I've been here for just as long as everyone else but as far as I know I'm the only one that's not getting any better at this. I just can't help it you know?"

"Jaune, it's okay," Ren replied bluntly as he absentmindedly spread his blanket out on the floor. "Like you said, you can't help it now but eventually you will get better."

"If you say so," Jaune replied gratefully. Ren was usually someone who didn't speak too often, but he was always truthful with his words, so his words meant that he genuinely believed that Jaune would become stronger.

"Are you going to wash up after me?" Jaune asked, with his towel draped over his shoulder.

"It's alright, I didn't really sweat too much today. Sir Port seemed like he was in a good mood so I think he went a bit easy on us," Ren replied as he sat on his blanket and leaned against the wall. "I'm just going to take some time to take a nap."

Jaune stared blankly at his friend. He wasn't going to take back the fact that he appreciated his friend's stoic attitude, but sometimes it could come off as insensitive. It was remarkable how quickly he could both bring up his hopes and deflate them in a few sentences.

* * *

Now wearing her long grey cloak over her black blouse and skirt, Ruby set off with a basket in her hand and a long dagger on her hip. She didn't have any plans to use the weapon, but Qrow had instructed her to never leave the house without it. He told her that even if she never drew it, it would provide her with extra safety.

That wasn't to say that she couldn't use it. From her fights with Qrow she was more than familiar with combat, and though she had never been attacked before she was more than confident that she could hold her own. She was actually disappointed about the fact that nobody had ever tried to attack her before. She imagined that among the people that lived in the town, there would be at least a few rotten apples who would be willing to steal from a little girl.

Unfortunately, everyone who lived in the town already knew her and more importantly, about the fact that she and Qrow lived together. Even if Qrow wasn't considered to be the town's hero, he was not someone who you wanted as an enemy so not even the dumbest bandit would dare to mess with Ruby. Having someone from outside the town to try and attack her was also out of the question since there was never any reason for anyone to ever come to this town in the middle of nowhere.

Ruby slumped her shoulders and patted her sheathed sword as she disappointedly accepted that she would never have a reason to use it for real. Closing the door of the small worn down house behind her, she started her walk through the dark forest.

* * *

"Students," a calm voice spoke as its owner commanded the attention of the young boys in front of him. The Duke of Beacon, Ozpin Baum, sat at his place at the very end of the grand hall. He dressed very modestly for his position, wearing only dark clothing and a robe with a mottled green colour. One would even say he didn't care for or even detested the luxuries that came with being a noble, seeing how he was sitting at the same table and chairs as the rest of his colleagues and students. After a few students turned their heads, he coughed once to clear his throat and continued to speak.

"It had been several months since I founded this school. For some of you, you have been trained to become a knight your whole life, even before you came here. For the rest of you, this has been you first taste of the world of knighthood," the Duke stood up as he spoke, projecting his voice throughout the quiet hall.

"One thing you must all remember is that becoming and being a knight is not an easy task. You hear in legends and fairy tales about the heroic knight that saves everyone from the evil dragon. You hear ridiculous lies about the knight that is able to save entire kingdoms on his own. None of these stories are true, but the fate of a knight relies on you becoming a living legend," the Duke said this sternly, but some of the students noticed that the Duke had somewhat of a sad look in his eyes.

"In a way knights live solely to be protectors of the people, living and dying for them. Not all knights follow this creed. I admit, there is corruption within the hearts of many and power is often an easy way to unlock it. The main thing that I want you to learn in your years in my school is that as a knight, you must be a knight not for yourself, but for the people," he said as he looked around the room. Most of the students in the room met his own gaze with a confused expression. He sighed once before continuing on to his final point. "Being a knight is much harder than becoming one. I hope that one day, you will all choose to grow to become the protectors of the people but more importantly, I hope that you do not make that choice lightly."

As he sat back down, the students started to look at each other, each with the identical expression of confusion at the Duke's spontaneous words.

At the sound of a short cough, the students once again turned their attention to the front of the room, this time to the Duchess of Vale, Gylnda Baum. "I'm sure that what the dear Duke is meaning to say is that he hopes that all of you keep his words in mind during the next following weeks. I'm sure that most of you have not forgotten, but the Spring Festival will be taking place in a few days and because of that, all of you will be given the opportunity to leave the school for an extended break. Those who wish to stay in the school can, but for anybody who wants to see their family and friends back home, I suggest you take this opportunity."

Like some of the other boys in the room, Jaune perked up at this announcement. He knew about the Spring festival of course, but he had somewhat assumed that they wouldn't be given the two week break that the holiday brought with it. In retrospect, it made sense but it meant that he hadn't made any specific plans for the festival.

"Oh well," Jaune thought to himself. "I guess I'll be going back home for a few weeks."

* * *

It usually took Ruby around three hours to walk to the town. The distance between the town and her house wasn't too long, but she liked to take the time to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the forest. The sight of nature made her feel small, but she somewhat took comfort in that. She usually walked slowly, taking many detours to follow a small animal or simply to sate her adventuring mindset's need to create new paths.

This time, she predicted that the entire journey would only take a little bit longer than an hour. Ruby decided to kill two birds with one stone and run to the town, shortening her travel time while taking care of her exercise quota for the day. It also helped that her hunger drove her to try and get to the nearest source of food in the shortest amount of time.

It wasn't long before she reached the edge of the forest, the unobstructed light of the sun blinding her briefly. She slowed down a bit, but continued jogging towards the direction of the town. At her current speed, she would only have to run ten more minutes until she started seeing signs of civilization.

When she saw the first building, she started to slow down to a walk. She walked along the road that slowly started to take shape under her feet, towards the heart of the town.

A pub, a large butchery, and a small bazaar filled with a couple of shops that were owned by the various villagers. It was nothing to speak of, but compared to the rest of the village, this part of the village was often much busier. Immediately after thinking this, Ruby noticed something odd about the scenery in front of her.

It seemed strangely festive. Seeing as the small town of about two hundred people rarely had anything to celebrate, the obnoxious amounts of flowers and the streamers that criss-crossed from house to house was something that Ruby had never seen outside of books.

But she wasn't disturbed by the decorations. In fact she was happy that the normally boring and dull town finally had some colour to it, but she couldn't help noticing that despite the cheery exterior of the town, no one was outside to celebrate it. All of the windows and doors were closed and though she could tell that people had recently been in the town – the various shops did not show any signs of neglect – so if the town was abandoned, it had been abandoned very recently.

She grew a bit nervous at the sight, not because she was afraid of what could make the villagers act this way, but because she was worried about what she could do about her food problem if the town had been abandoned. She wasn't unfamiliar with the paranoid and superstitious ways of the villagers and she didn't have any trouble imagining that they would pack up and leave their things because of an odd arrangement in the stars, but food was another issue.

She walked towards the butcher's house, but after pulling at the door knob she found that it was locked. Shrugging, she walked towards the pub, the only place in the town that was usually crowded despite the general scarcity of people in the area.

As she walked towards the pub, she started to hear the mumbling of low voices coming from the pub and sighed in relief, but when she grabbed the doorknob and turned the handle she heard clattering and then silence. Pausing only for a moment, she opened the door.

Inside was a strange sight. A handful of grown men were grouped together at the opposite end of the room, standing up and each of them with pieces of furniture or cutlery in their hands. They were holding them up as makeshift weapons, trying to look as threatening as possible, but their terrified and surprised expressions gave away their fear. Ruby could only think of them as silly.

When they recognized that Ruby was just a little girl and not some horrific monster, the men collectively let out a big sigh and put down their weapons. One of the men, one that Ruby recognized as the bartender of the pub, put his hand to his chest as if to calm his heart down and looked back up at Ruby. "What are you doing here Miss Ruby?"

She looked back at him with a confused expression. "I'm here because I ran out of food. Do you know where Mr. Barbatos is? I wanted to buy some jerky but he wasn't home."

She heard a cough from the group of men as a short, but stocky looking man walked into her view. The butcher lowered his head apologetically. "Miss Ruby," he said as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry for the trouble, I'll open my shop for you but let's make it quick, okay?"

As he walked over to her, the other men proceeded to stand up their fallen stools and sit back down. As the butcher and Ruby pushed open the doors, she looked back at the group and saw them mumbling to each other again, each of them with a nervous tendency to look around and flinch at the slightest noise. Each of them had a drink in front of them, but she noticed that none of them were drinking.

Stepping outside of the pub, she was surprised to find that the butcher was already bent over at his door, trying to unlock it. The distance between the bar and the butchery was already very short, but the panic in his motions implied that he didn't want to stay outside for any longer than was necessary.

After a few seconds, the butcher let out a small yelp of success as he opened the door. He looked back and seemed shocked to see Ruby still at the entrance of the pub and frantically motioned for her to come in. "Miss Ruby, quickly!" he hissed, trying to get his words across to her while being as quiet as he possibly could. Complying with his request, Ruby walked into the butchery.

The man immediately went behind the counter and started to rummage through his wares. If Ruby didn't already know him, she would have assumed that he was a thief. She held back on actually mentioning that, but her curiosity finally overtook her and she asked, "Mr. Barbatos, what's happening in the town?"

The butcher froze for a second, and she could see that his fearful expression was replaced by one of shock and surprise. "You don't know?" he asked uncertainly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ruby said as she shook her head.

"Tell me Miss Ruby, why did you come to town again?" he asked. He was no longer rummaging through his wares and all of his previous urgency seemed to be replaced with the need to hear Ruby's answer.

"I needed food," she said as she pointed to the already wrapped jerky that sat two feet away from where the butcher was frantically searching before. "I ran out at home and Qrow hasn't been home for days so I had to come to town to get some more. Is something wrong?"

The butcher stumbled a bit as his legs seemed to lose their strength, but he managed to right himself and look Ruby directly in the eyes. "Miss Ruby," he said in a voice more serious than she had ever heard from the usually lax man before. "It was very dangerous of you to go through the forest alone like that. If it's alright with you, I want you to stay with my family until Master Qrow comes to pick you up."

Ruby backed up a bit slowly reaching for her dagger. Qrow had told her that if any older man invited her to their house, she should either fight or run away. She didn't have any personal grudge against the butcher, but according to Qrow's teachings he was a threat. "Mr. Barbatos, if you won't sell me any food I'm going to leave."

The butcher's eyes widened as he realized that Ruby was getting ready to defend herself from him and furiously waved his arms in denial. "No Miss Ruby, it's too dangerous for a young girl to go outside on her own."

Ruby shook her head, but otherwise ignored his protests. She had completely drawn her sword and watched as the butcher's eyes followed the blade wearily. "Will you sell me food or not Mr Barbatos?" Ruby repeated.

The butcher only stared at her for a moment and sighed. "I will sell you your food, Miss Ruby. But please listen to me. The forest is dangerous. Stay in town until Master Qrow eventually gets this entire mess settled. I know I can't force you to stay, but I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had to wonder if I sent a young girl out to die."

Ruby inwardly rolled her eyes at the man's concerns and shook her head at him. "It's okay Mr. Barbatos. Qrow already taught me how to take care of myself."

It wasn't the first time that someone had tried to stop her because of some silly superstition. The villagers seemed to have an irrational and intense fear of the forest. Sometimes she just wanted to drag one of them to the forest and show them how beautiful it was, but Qrow had told her to leave the villagers be. He always told her to let them believe whatever they wanted. His reasoning was that they were both outsiders to the culture and that they had no right to interfere with it, no matter how silly it was. She knew he was right – he always was – but she couldn't help but feel frustrated at the villagers at times.

The butcher, obviously not convinced by the tiny girl's ability to fight whatever horrors the forest had to offer, shook his head. "Miss Ruby, you don't know the stories they tell," he said with a distant look in his eyes. "You've never seen the victims of a Grimm attack. Usually when they're found they've already been chewed up and mangled by the scavengers of the forest, but there's always something about Grimm victims that leave you shuddering in fear."

He looked up at her and despite the uncaring gaze he got in return, his own eyes were full of fear. "I've seen a Grimm victim before. To be honest I can't remember much about it, maybe I just refused to believe it at the time but I know that it's real," he said, holding his arms as if a sudden chill passed over him. "I've seen the victims of a wild animal attack, and I'm telling you whatever caused those claw marks wasn't natural. One swipe of a claw and the entire body was almost ripped into four separate pieces."

Ruby put away her dagger. After hearing his story, it didn't seem like the butcher meant to harm her. He probably thought that keeping her in the town was actually necessary to keep her safe. She didn't understand people too well, but even she could recognize the genuine concern and fear in the butcher's voice.

"Right now, the Grimm are more active than ever. Three deaths happened in the past two weeks. I honestly look back at the times where I could sleep soundly at night and wonder about what a fool I was for forgetting about the dangers that lay right outside my home." The butcher continued on even as Ruby tried to get his attention by waving some money at him. Apparently he had forgotten why Ruby even came to his shop in the first place. "When Master Qrow came along, he was a saviour to us all. The first man ever to slay a Grimm. The first man ever to save us from this life of terror. I know that right now he's fighting for us all, but sometimes I wonder. No matter how skilled he may be, he is just a man. What if this time he can't save us? What if the Grimm are a reminder from god that we're mere mortals. Can one lone Huntsman save us all?"

Ruby held back a giggle as the butcher started to describe Qrow like he would a god. At home, Qrow was crude, lazy, and mostly drunk. What was a Huntsman anyways? Why were the villagers all so crazy that they would stay indoors, trembling in fear of Grimm?

Grimm only existed in fairy tales.

* * *

A man sighed as he shuffled through his papers and massaged his own neck. Though he was looking at the papers in front of him, his gazed was unfocused and he let them sit on his desk unread. Sighing again, he pushed his chair back and stood up.

Aurelius Arc often had trouble remaining comfortable whenever he wasn't on his feet. He knew that his home was one of the safest in Remnant but from his long life of battle, it wasn't an easy habit to drop. Similarly, even though it would constantly weigh him down and obstruct his movement he was much more comfortable in a full of armor than he was in his regular clothes. Of course, he wasn't wearing any armor in the comfort of his office, but he wanted to. The only sign of his knighthood, aside from his strong figure and posture, was the sword that he kept strapped to his waist.

He looked outside the window longingly, wishing that he were out in the battlefield. He wasn't a bloodthirsty fighter by any means, but his obsessive sense of justice nagged at him, telling him that there were citizens of Vale that were suffering because he wasn't there. He resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't be everywhere at once a long time ago, but that never changed him from regretting that he wasn't trying.

He sighed as he shuffled through the papers that sat on his desk. No matter how often he reminded himself that what he did in the office would help many more people than what he could do by going out into the field, he never really enjoyed the fact. His peers liked to call him a perfectionist, saying that he wouldn't be satisfied until he personally made sure that every mission was a success, but the truth was much simpler.

He grew anxious whenever he sent out his men to protect his people. He often grew paranoid that some people would die without his help, and that by being there he could prevent that. He simply wanted to participate in missions to sate the overprotective drive that he felt towards the good people of Vale.

Aurelius Arc picked up the first official document on his desk. He couldn't help but sigh again when he read what it said. It was a formal request from a small town near the outskirts of the country that practically begged for the Royal Guard to come help their small town. Apparently they had been getting constant Grimm infestations plaguing their town but after a recent and severe attack, they felt that the only way they could get rid of it was if a group from the army and the church could come to eradicate the Grimm and bless their cursed lands.

Aurelius Arc viewed it as an annoyance. It was impossible to send the Royal Guard to the town of course, and though it would be relatively simple to ask the church to lend him one of their clergy, they had no obligation to do so and he was afraid that they might refuse to leave to safety of the cities to complete a mission of this nature.

Thinking it over, he was confident that no matter what the threat was in that village, any of his men would be strong enough to take it. He decided that he would probably send a small troop of men and equip them with fancy cloaks to make them look more important than they actually were and have them lie to the villagers about being part of the Royal Guard. Lying to the villagers wasn't completely necessary, but if they felt safer in the hands of the "Royal Guard" then lying wouldn't hurt anyone.

The church refusing to send any of their members out on such a mission was also a possibility, but if worst came to worst, he could have one of his members volunteer to dress up as a holy man.

It wasn't like it would matter. Grimm didn't even exist in the first place.

.

 **I legitimately forgot that I had finished this chapter around a month ago. Oh well.**

 **Updates might be more regular since Summer's rolling around, giving me more free time to work on this thing. If everything goes well, I estimate a chapter every ten days.**

 **Also I hated giving Ozpin a last name, but I felt it would be weird if he didn't have one. Just to let you guys know, Baum is the last name of the author of Wizard of Oz, so even though it kind of doesn't fit I still used it. Also Glynda is Ozpin's wife, not because of any of this shipping business, but to give a reason for her being in the castle/school in the first place. She probably won't even appear more than three times in the entire story anyways, so whatever.**

 **I also have no idea how to narrate an eleven or thirteen year old's mind, but whatever to that too.**


	3. Social interaction

**Future edits may come.  
**

* * *

Barbatos Grey watched as Ruby left his shop. His fear of being alone in the presence of Grimm was momentarily overtaken by his moral dilemma.

He had let her go. Of course, she wanted to leave in the first place. He was just fulfilling her wishes. Was he just trying to justify his own cowardice? If her body ended up rotting on the forest floor in four separate pieces would he be able to sleep at night? Would he ever be able to forgive himself if something happened to her that could have easily been prevented if he had made her stay, even if he had to force her? He shook his head violently as he tried to dispel the doubts in his mind. Resting his face in his palms, he let out a big sigh.

Moments passed by as Barbatos tried his hardest to think about anything other than the unknown fate of his most recent customer. It was proving to be useless.

The overwhelming sound of his thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the small creak of the door. Barbatos bolted upwards, eyes bulging and glued to the door, and remembered that before he could worry about someone who was mostly a stranger, he had to worry about himself. The door creaked again and slowly opened, causing him to immediately duck under the counter, forgetting and not realizing that it was made of glass.

The door opened fully to reveal a man that Barbatos had only seen a few times before. He almost cried out of relief when he saw that Qrow was alive and well.

Qrow did not look nearly as happy to see him.

* * *

Jaune grunted as the horse-drawn cart started to move unexpectedly. Though he was sitting down, the sudden start caused him to fall over awkwardly. Though it wasn't painful, he heard a short puff of stifled laughter. Looking up, he looked over at the only other student who was traveling with him. The young boy sitting across from him looked away, as if he could convince Jaune that he wasn't the one who laughed, but after noticing that Jaune was glaring at him he couldn't seem to hold back his laughter.

"Sorry." The boy rubbed his head a little in an embarrassed apology. "That was really rude of me to laugh at you like that."

Looking back at him, the boy at least looked sincere. Jaune sighed and shook his head. "No no, it's okay," he said as he gave a weak grin. "Hey if I can make someone laugh, being clumsy has its benefits doesn't it?"

The boy let out a small laugh again. "I suppose it does."

The boy looked away and focused his attention to his bag, digging out a small snack and starting to eat it. Jaune didn't bother trying to talk further, seeing as the boy had obviously ended the conversation deliberately, but something about the boy seemed familiar.

He was sure he had seen the boy around in the school before, which made sense seeing as they were both on a travel cart that had departed from said school. It was quite hard to mistake such a bright red head of hair.

What bothered him though, was that he felt that the familiarity ran deeper than that. He hadn't noticed it before, seeing as he had only caught very short glimpses of him in school, but he had a suspicion that he knew the boy already. They were headed to the same town so maybe the boy had lived there too? Maybe they had been friends when they were younger.

Lost in thought, Jaune barely noticed that the boy was staring directly back into his eyes. It was an impressive feat seeing as the shocking green hue was just as vibrant as the boy's red hair.

"Excuse me, do you need something?" The boy's question knocked Jaune out of his deep train of thought.

"Umm… what? Oh you mean me," Jaune sputtered, the question catching him off guard. "No I don't need anything."

The boy, seemingly content with the answer, simply returned his attention to his food. Jaune cringed a bit at his smooth display of casual conversation skills, but despite that he continued to try and figure out where he knew the boy from. Moments passed before Jaune decided that he couldn't figure out on his own. Even though it was a bit embarrassing, he would have to ask.

"Actually," he started, quickly getting the boy's attention. "I was thinking that you looked familiar and I was wondering if maybe, we knew each other at some point?"

The boy turned to him, for some reason looking a lot more tired than he had a few seconds before. "Sorry I don't recall." While he was looking towards Jaune's direction, Jaune noticed that he seemed to be trying to avoid meeting his gaze. "I'm sure you've just seen me around or heard of me somewhere."

Jaune quickly shook his head as the boy suggested an answer that he had already denied in his head. "No that's not it. I mean sure I'm pretty sure I've seen you around the halls a few times or in classes, but I don't think we've ever actually talked before."Jaune sheepishly shrugged his shoulders. "I mean I'm sure you're a cool guy, but I don't even know your name."

Jaune felt a bit nervous after revealing that fact. Maybe they had actually been introduced early on in the year but he had forgotten about him in the hectic school lifestyle. He was worried that he may have accidentally offended him, but to his surprise the boy's eyes sparked to life with a hint of intrigue and interest.

"Then why did you say you thought I looked familiar?" The boy asked this question cautiously, but Jaune, oblivious to his suspicion, continued on without missing a beat.

"Well, we're going home to the same town right? I just thought I vaguely remembered someone who looked like you when I was younger. I mean, it's not a small town but we might have hung out together as kids or something." At these words, though Jaune noticed that the boy's eyes flashed with a small hint of sadness, the rest of the boy's expression radiated happiness.

"No I'm sorry we probably haven't met before," the boy replied with an uncertain smile. "I'm afraid that I moved out of this town at a very early age and I'm just going back now to reconnect with my extended family. Perhaps you knew one of my younger cousins? I'm told our red hair really makes it hard for people to tell our family apart."

Jaune nodded. It was certainly possible that he had the boy mistaken for someone else. "I guess. You're probably right. Sorry for bothering you." Taking a page out of the boy's book, Jaune reached into his own bag and searched around for the small sandwich.

It was a surprise to him when he heard the boy getting up and walking over to him steadily, despite the constant rocking of the cart over the uneven roads. The boy sat next to him and gave a short wave accompanied by a smile. "Just because we didn't know each other before, doesn't mean we can't to get know each other now." Holding out his hand, the boy introduced himself. "My name is Pyrrhus Nikos, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"The name's Jaune Arc," Jaune said as he took the boy's hand. "Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." For a split second Pyrrhus gave Jaune a look of surprise and shock, before pulling his face back into a smile.

Now that Jaune was able to look at Pyrrhus more closely his suspicions that he had seen Pyrrhus before only grew, but he internally denied the possibility once again. He had just remembered that ever since he was young, he had only been able to make friends with girls for some reason. In fact, Ren was his first and only male friend.

Pyrrhus was probably right. Jaune probably mistook him for one of his relatives.

* * *

It had been a few minutes since Qrow had stepped into his shop and it had been a few minutes since Barbatos heard any sound other than his own heartbeat. After his initial happiness at seeing the town's saviour at his door, this emotion quickly dissolved away to something else. Happiness turned to discomfort, and then to anxiety as Qrow stared at him.

Qrow moved. He had only opened his mouth to speak, but even that set Barbatos on edge.

"You. Yeah, you." Qrow motioned to him as if he were trying to get his attention. "What do you think you're doing?"

Barbatos remained frozen as if he hadn't heard what Qrow had just asked. Apparently angry that his question wasn't being answered, Qrow slammed his fist into the side of the door, making a sharp sound and shocking Barbatos to attention.

"I'm sorry!" Barbatos yelled as he tried to hide himself with his arms, not knowing exactly what he was apologizing for.

To his surprised, Qrow only replied by hissing and clutching at his head. Despite his fear of the man, Barbatos felt a tinge of worry for the saviour of his town but before he could voice these worries, Qrow held up a finger and shushed him quite aggressively.

"Stop," he said as he clutched his head. "Just… stop talking."

Barbatos immediately obeyed.

"Listen here, you. I need you to tell me a little something here." Qrow looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. "What have you been doing behind my back?"

"Excuse me?" Barbatos asked, his confusion somewhat snapping him out of his fearful paralysis. Qrow's question didn't make sense to him and by the way he had said it, it was like he did something wrong but he was an innocent man. Qrow obviously believed otherwise.

"I'm going to give you five seconds to explain yourself." Qrow sloppily held up his hand with five fingers extended. "If I don't like your answer, I'm going to have to have you suffer for my own sake. Sorry."

Barbatos could only let out a confused grunt before he heard the countdown.

"Five."

Time seemed to slow for Barbatos as Qrow's thumb went down. That one second seemed like an hour. In that hour, Barbatos felt like he had all the time in the world to focus and think about anything that caught his attention. In this particular hour, he decided to study Qrow's expression. It promised death.

"Four."

In the next hour, Barbatos's mind raced to figure out what Qrow could have been possibly talking about. Unlike Qrow's expression, the answer to this enigma was not nearly as clear. He wished that he hadn't wasted so much of his last hour.

"Three."

Barbatos's had no idea what Qrow could be talking about. Did he do something wrong that he didn't even know about? How did Qrow know he did anything wrong anyways? Qrow wasn't a god.

"Two."

The thought suddenly appeared in his mind, spurred on by both hope and desperation. Maybe Qrow was a god. Who else could slay such ferocious beasts on his own, asking for nothing more than shelter and food in return? Who else but a benevolent god?

"One."

"Oh no," he thought. "I'm being punished for not believing in him."

"I'm sorry for not believing in your skills Master Qrow," he cried out as Qrow reached behind his own back. "We were afraid. We were foolish and unfaithful for not trusting in your kindness."

It was Qrow's turn to give Barbatos a look of confusion, but the butcher hadn't noticed this and simply continued his rant.

"We sent a messenger to inform the king about this Grimm problem we've been having," he said, now kneeling with his eyes closed and hands clasped together. "Please, I ask you forgive me for not having faith in you and relying on outside help." Barbatos waited for Qrow's response, dreading the burning of a heavenly smite and hoping for the ethereal words of mercy.

Surprisingly neither came. Barbatos dared to open his eyes to see Qrow looking blankly at a random spot in the ceiling. He no longer looked angry, but something in his dark expression made him look surprised, but determined.

* * *

Jaune gingerly rubbed his sore back as he got up and off of the cart. Now that he was feeling the full effect that riding a cart for eight hours straight could have on your muscles, he almost regretted that the journey was over. Along with the desire to delay the pain of standing up, he was a bit disappointed that he would have to stop talking with Pyrrhus. After he introduced himself to Pyrrhus, they had talked for a bit and he found that it was incredibly easy to talk to him. It was a refreshing feeling. Sure, he had other friends… or rather friend, but Ren wasn't the most talkative person.

To be fair, Jaune had done most of the talking, but chatting with Pyrrhus actually felt like social interaction as opposed to the brick wall style of conversation that Ren employed.

"How do you do it?" Jaune asked Pyrrhus as he hopped off the cart.

Shooting him a puzzled look, the red-headed boy asked, "What do you mean, Jaune?"

"How are you not dying from muscle pains after such a long ride?"

"I guess I'm just used to them."

"You go on eight hour long trips often?" Jaune raised an eyebrow quite comfortably. His brow held the some of the only muscles that he felt he could use properly at the moment.

"I've been travelling around since I was young."

As Pyrrhus gracefully jumped off the cart and landed beside Jaune, the driver nodded to them and rode off quickly, probably eager to let his horses rest.

"Well Pyrrhus," Jaune said, struggling to heave his relatively light bag over his stiff shoulders, "It was really nice getting to know you. We should hang out more."

Pyrrhus gave a small smile. "I would love that Jaune."

"I don't just mean at school by the way. If you ever feel bored, feel free to come visit me any time." Jaune finally managed to get his luggage in a comfortable carrying position. "I haven't made any specific plans to hang out with anybody here, so I'm pretty free."

Pyrrhus nodded and a moment of silence passed by them. While Jaune felt a little uncomfortable at the first awkward silence they had experienced since they introduced themselves, Pyrrhus seemed to be deep in thought. Even when Jaune turned to him and waved his hands, he didn't seem to notice.

"Well, I guess it's time to go home for now," Jaune said, hoping that Pyrrhus would hear him. No such luck. "Pyrrhus." Jaune tapped on the red-headed boy's shoulder to try and get his attention.

Turning his head around, Pyrrhus gave Jaune a questioning look. "Oh Jaune, did you need something?"

"I just wanted to say good bye. I was planning on heading home now."

"Oh okay." Despite his answer, Pyrrhus seemed somewhat reluctant to allow Jaune to leave. Oblivious to this, Jaune waved goodbye and started to head off towards his home.

To his surprise, a few seconds afterwards, he heard his name being called and felt a hand catching his shoulder. "Jaune," Pyrrhus said nervously. "I- there's this combat tournament being held tomorrow at the town square. I'm going to enter the singles tournament."

"Oh that's cool, good luck I guess." Jaune was confused about why Pyrrhus was bringing this up now, but he didn't mention it.

"I- I didn't mention this before, but I've been going to these types of tournaments since I was young. I've never gone to a doubles tournament though…" Looking up at Jaune, Pyrrhus waited expectantly.

"You've been entering combat tournaments even before knight training? Wow that's amazing!"

"Eh, yes. People do say that," Pyrrhus said, awkwardly scratching his neck. "Anyways, I've been to a lot of singles tournaments, but I've never found anyone to partner up with for a doubles tournament. It always sounded like it would be fun, but I was never able to find someone who was willing to team up with me. I was actually thinking of entering the doubles tournament with you."

"Wha-"

"Well, what do you think?" Pyrrhus asked expectantly.

"Umm, I don't know Pyrrhus," Jaune replied, confused by the sudden nature of the request. "I mean I would love to be your partner, but I've never fought anyone before, hell I can barely keep up with the sword drills we do in school. I'd only drag you down."

Pyrrhus simply shrugged and smiled. "Jaune, it's okay I'm sure you'll do just fine. Also we don't have to win you know. Think of this tournament as a new experience, learn from it, and have fun!"

Jaune looked at Pyrrhus's smile and tried to find any hint of dishonesty in his words. Finding only the genuine trust in the truth of his words, he sighed but quickly returned the smile. "Sure, I mean what's the worst that can happen right? Plus, technically it's also your first tournament so we might be in the same boat here."

"Excellent," Pyrrhus said with a bright smile. "The tournament is happening in two days just after noon."

"Okay, see you there I guess."

As Jaune turned to walk away again, he heard Pyrrhus calling out again. "Wait Jaune," Pyrrhus said, pulling his shoulder and turning him back to face him. "I couldn't help but notice that you invited me to visit your home, but you never told me where you lived."

Jaune slapped his forehead theatrically. "Of course, how could I forget." He pointed towards the large castle that sat at the top of a hill, somewhat separated from the village. "I live in that big castle over there. You can hardly miss it."

As Pyrrhus followed his gaze, his expression turned into one of shock for a split second before he broke into the biggest smile that Jaune had seen that day.

* * *

Barbatos cowered under his own arms, afraid of what Qrow would do now that he knew the truth. Qrow only ignored the man, threw open the door in a swift motion, and quietly walked out. He only had one destination. The only place in the town that he actually liked, the bar.

As he pushed the door open slowly, he heard the light clatter of bodies jerking up in their seats at attention to the foreign noise. He sighed, the reaction was always the. At first he thought of it as funny and enjoyable to spook the villagers before letting them know he was there, but seeing as he could do without even meaning to, the novelty was fading. He shook his head.

He was losing the love for his job. He certainly didn't expect the villagers to try and contact outside help because of his job, but now that it had happened he didn't understand why they hadn't done so sooner. Now that the gears had been set in motion, all that was left to do was to do his job, and play his part. His job…

His job was fun, he couldn't imagine doing anything else with his life, but he knew it all had to come to an end. His job had an end goal, and by letting the outside world know about his job he was a step closer to reaching it. He wasn't too happy about his job ending, but he knew that Ruby wasn't getting any younger. She deserved a much better life, one away from the problems and danger that he and his job presented. If his job ending was the trigger to giving Ruby a better life, then so be it.

He wished he didn't love his job so much…

He wished he never met his daughter.

He pushed the doors of the bar wide open and, ignoring the shocked stares of the villagers, went over to the counter and reached for the largest bottle of the strongest liquor he could see.

Being drunk didn't prevent him from trying to get more drunk. Drinking straight from the bottle, he ignored the annoying chattering of the villagers behind him.

He could only hear himself, but he didn't have much to say. He could only form a single word in his head.

Damn…

* * *

"I'm home," Jaune yelled into the halls. A timid looking maid walked up to him, and took his bag wordlessly.

Hearing light footsteps from his right side, he over to see an girl with flowing blonde hair walking over to him with a refined elegance. As she approached, she noticed his gaze and gave a short curtsey. "It has been too long dear brother. How was your travel here?"

Jaune tilted his head, barely recognizing the person who spoke to him. She looked to be around fourteen years old, so only an year older than himself. She was definitely family, judging from her blonde hair and blue eyes. That and the fact that she had referred to him as her brother. Searching through his mental diary, he tried to identify who the young girl was.

"Azure… is that you?" he asked uncertainly.

"Yes, of course dear brother. It is I, your older sister," she replied, giving another curtsey.

Jaune looked at her slack-jawed. He could barely believe the brash tomboy that he had known for so long could have grown to be the person in front of him within the span of three years. "Umm… are you okay? Are you sick or something?"

Azure's only response was to look him straight in the eyes with a serious expression. She then glanced around them, trying not to move her head as much as possible. After confirming that nobody was around, she practically fell onto him squeezing him in a tight hug.

"It's so good to see you Jaune," Azure whispered as Jaune only stood there, confused as ever. "You have no idea how much I missed the company of a sane person."

"What are you talking about Azure?"

The blonde girl released him as she stood back, pouting with her arms crossed and all semblance of the polite girl who had greeted him now gone. "Everything Jaune, everything! Not long after you left the house to do your boy things or whatever, I've had to start training to be a lady. Nowhere in the house is safe! I can't relax and just be me anywhere in this house, or even in the down in the town. The servants were told to report to my etiquette tutor if they ever saw me so much as standing wrong."

She sighed, leaning back dramatically with the back of her hand on her forehead. "Some of our sisters are sympathetic to me, but most of them are much better at doing this so they don't understand my pain. Nobody does in this world. Why couldn't we have switched genders. Oh the cruelty of this world."

Jaune simply raised an eyebrow, but secretly felt a wave of relief as he accepted that his sister hadn't been replaced or possessed in his absence. "Sorry for being the man of the family Azure", he said grinning at her over exaggerated performance.

"Oh please," she scoffed. "I probably have more manliness in my pinky than you do in your entire body. What did they even make you do in your precious knight school, arts and crafts? You barely have any muscle on you." She viciously poked him in the sides, and though he barely felt it, Jaune brushed the annoying jabs away.

"Oh you hurt me so." Jaune's deadpan look and response were met with Azure sticking her tongue out at him. "Speaking of our sisters, where are they? I'm surprised you were the only one to come and greet me."

"Oh they voted me off as the sacrifice to have to interact with the gross one in the family."

"Sorry for interrupting your monologue then."

Jaune's smile only widened as Azure tried to drill holes into his skull with her glare. "Very funny. If you really need to know, everybody's still doing their lessons, etiquette, music, what not. I only heard you since I was using the washroom, or the lady version. Freshening up."

"What about mom and father?"

"Mom's out with her friends at some social event. I haven't seen daddy yet today, but I'm gonna guess he's at work now." She crossed her arms and gave him a grin. "Frankly, you couldn't have picked a worse time of the day to arrive. Everybody's pretty busy with something right now and the next time you'll be able to see anyone is probably at dinner. Maybe you should go get some rest, I'm guessing the trip here was pretty tiring."

"Nah, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Plus, it would be bad for me if I got used to sleeping at weird hours," he replied. "I'll probably just go into town for a bit."

Suddenly, Azure seemed to notice something in the corner of her vision and immediately stood up straight and held her hands together. "I wish you the best, dear brother," she said, curtseying as Jaune noticed that one of the servants was walking in their general direction with cleaning supplies in their arms.

Jaune nodded, unsure of what the gentlemanly response would be or even if he was required to return the formal speech.

* * *

After locking up his shop, a bit slower time as he regained a bit of his confidence in knowing that the threatening Qrow still watched over the town, Barbatos quickly ran back to the bar, eager to tell the other men of the good news.

Fortunately for him, he could save a few of his breaths since they obviously knew of Qrow's presence. Unfortunately for him, what he saw baffled him. Despite only taking five minutes to recover from his shock and leave for the bar, the counter in front of Qrow was littered in empty glassware. Looking over at his fellow villagers, he could only note that they were as confused as he was.

They watched as Qrow shot back another small bottle of something. It was emptied in a matter of seconds. It would have been a marvel to watch if this weren't the man who was supposed to protect their entire town from imminent death. With the way he was drinking, he would be the first to fall.

Barbatos felt a little more comfortable with watching Qrow drinking than the other men. He knew that Qrow was a god incarnate after all, and no god would fall to a mere drink. It didn't surprise him as much when Qrow slammed bottle down and turned to the group of men, though he flinched at the noise all the same.

"It won't work," Qrow said in a quiet voice as he gazed out into nothingness with misty eyes. "The royal guard doesn't care about anything that doesn't concern Mistral or the royal family."

Barbatos spoke quickly as the first to accept Qrow's godly omniscience. "Please Master Qrow," he pleaded on his knees. "Please forgive us for not having faith in you." He could hear the villagers whispering behind his back, but he did not care for their thoughts anymore.

"The royal family won't care, but I know who will." Qrow's gaze still held firm as he continued to glare at nothing, seemingly unaware of the butcher's outburst. "Send a letter to the Duke of Patch."

"Get someone to hand deliver the letter. It doesn't matter who. Tell them to go to the castle guards and tell them you have a message from Qrow Branwen." As he said this, he started looking around. After a short sigh, he stood up and viciously kicked the legs off of the stool he sat on. The bartender reflexly raised his hand to yell at a customer for trashing his bar, but quickly caught himself. Everyone in the room flinched as Qrow shattered his most recently emptied bottle and sliced his index finger open.

He was the only one who didn't cringe as he smeared his bloody finger over the surface of his makeshift wooden plaque, yet no one dared to look away. They watched as he wordlessly wrote with a short message with his finger. Most of them struggled to read it, but it was a simple message.

"She's here. She has it. Qrow."

He tossed the plaque carelessly on the top of the counter. "Bring that with you. Let it dry."

* * *

After visiting his room and changing out of his school uniform and into his more comfortable clothing, Jaune lazily stretched out his arms as he exited the castle. Now that he knew that his sisters were busy with their own education, he felt a bit guilty that he was so free. At first he was tempted to do some exercise drills and train on his own, but the strain in his body convinced him to leave it for another day. Instead he decided to roam the market in the town below.

Or at least that was the plan.

For whatever reason, he had been stopped at the gates of the town and brought in for questioning as a suspicious outsider.

"I've already told you, I'm Jaune Arc, son of Aurelius Arc." Jaune was exasperated at how the young guard didn't know who he was. While technically the Arc family wasn't a "noble" one due to Aurelius Arc's insistence that neither he nor his family should have so much value attached to a name, they were one of the well known and well liked in the entire town.

Obviously, the young guard in front of him wasn't so impressed. "Yeah right," he said. "And I'm the Duke of Patch, Taiyang Xiao Long. Nice to meet you." Jaune tried his hardest not to stare back at him with a deadpan glare, just in case the guard would take it as a sign of aggression, but it was a very difficult task.

"Look buddy," the man introduced as Taiyang continued. "I doubt you're a spy or anything like that, but if you lie about your identity like you just did it would make anyone seem suspicious. I promise I won't get angry if you tell me the truth right now, so why don't you just tell me the truth and we can leave this cramped office."

Jaune sighed, frustrated at the man's antics. Maybe if it were the second or even the third time that the guard had asked for his "real name" he would have answered him, but every single time that he had told him that his name was indeed Jaune Arc, the conversation looped back to this point.

"You refuse to talk huh?" the guard murmured, as if asking Jaune a question. Turning away from Jaune, he started mumbling to himself, unaware that he was still within earshot. "Huh, I still haven't been taught what to do in this situation, should I go find Vince? No no, who would watch the kid then?"

Jaune was about to speak up and suggest finding his father, but the door to the room suddenly burst open revealing a much older and angrier guard.

"Rickert! Why the blazes would you run off like that this time?" The man walked up to the young guard, and tapped his head lightly.

"Hey Vince, there's no need for violence." Despite the lack of strength in the blow, the young guard, apparently named Rickert and not Taiyang, rubbed his head. "No matter how hard you hit me, those armored gloves still hurt you know."

"Nothing I do seems to get through that thick skull of yours, so you only have yourself to blame," he said, tapping Rickert's head again. "So tell me, why did you leave your post, and why are you just sitting around here?"

Rickert suddenly stood up and gave a salute, as if he were about to give a report. The only thing that ruined his professional image was the goofy smile. "Well if you must know Vince," he said beaming with obvious pride at his own actions. "I was standing guard at the east gates, and I see this young fellow approaching me. As you know, the only people who really need to use those gates are members of the Arc family or their servants, and seeing as this kid is obviously neither I thought I'd brin-"

"Why is the boss's son here?" The older guard, Vince, had just noticed Jaune sitting there, looking uncomfortable about the entire situation, and cut off the younger guard's report.

An awkward silence filled the room.

The dull clang of metal against head resounded throughout the room, breaking the silence.

"Oww! Vince, that really hurt!"

"What the hell do you think you're doing, imprisoning your own boss's son!" Vince continued to smack the top of Rickert's head, obviously not caring about his pain. "This is by far the stupidest thing you've ever done."

"It's not my fault!" Rickert cried out in response, trying to shield his head with his arms. Thankfully for him he was wearing armor, that protected him from the bruising blows of his superior. "I didn't even know the boss had a son! I thought he only had daughters!"

"Of course you did, you idiot. The 'Seven Arc sisters' is much easier to remember than the 'Seven Arc sisters plus one son.'" He gave one final blow, squeezing past Rickert's loose defenses and landing square on his head. "The biggest problem is that you never even bothered to think about what you were doing. What, you think you're a knight? You think you're anything other than a rookie guardsman? You don't have the authority to just question people. Even if Jaune were some suspicious character, you go to me and tell me about it."

"Umm…" Jaune spoke up interrupting the guard's frantic yelling. "Now that this is all cleared up, can I just… go?"

Vince had temporarily had forgotten Jaune was there, and experienced a jolt of surprise when he spoke up. Looking at Jaune and back at Rickert, he absentmindedly said, "yes sir, Master Arc." Turning now, to face him, he gave him a deep bow. "Please forgive the actions of this idiot," he said stressing the last word. "I'll make sure he gets what he deserves."

"No no, please. It was just a misunderstanding. There's no need to be so harsh."

At this word, Rickert's face lit up and he opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, but with a hard glare from Vince, he quickly shut it.

Recognizing that he was free to go, Jaune walked out of the room as he heard the sounds of yelling coming from behind the closed door. Shaking his head in disbelief at what had just happened, he started to search for the way out.

* * *

The bar was quiet as Qrow sat down on a new bar stool and reached over for a new bottle of whatever he could find. He let the liquid drip down his throat, burning as it went but not burning nearly enough. He shook his head and cursed his high tolerance to alcohol. If only he was a bit weaker to the stuff. He would still be drunk and he wouldn't have to face what he had just done.

Looking around, he gave a little start as he realized that his audience was still there. Looking at the bottle in his hands and back at the cowering men, he quickly made his decision. Getting up, he started to move towards the door, dropping a large sum coins at the counter.

Unexpectedly, as he got up one of the men, the only one who was looking up at him and not as his feet, started to get up too.

"Master Qrow," he said in an uncomfortably loud voice, causing Qrow to clutch his head. "Before you go, I just wanted to ask about Miss Ruby."

At the mention of his pride and joy, Qrow perked up, interested at what the man had to say.

Apparently the man had interpreted Qrow's silent interest as a signal to continue. "Please don't think I am questioning your method of parenting or am in doubt of your extent of protection." Qrow had no idea what the man was talking about, but he felt a tinge of nostalgia when he saw the crazy and desperate look in his eyes. It reminded him of himself.

"I'm sure you already know, but Miss Ruby came to this town earlier today." Qrow nodded. Of course he knew. He always made sure she was safe.

"I was surprised to hear that she walked through the entire forest on her own." Qrow sighed. The man clearly had no idea about the true nature of what lived in the forest. He was grateful for that of course, but he would always have to stop himself from pointing out something that was so obviously wrong.

Like always, he compromised instead, giving the man a vague and hopefully cryptic answer. "I know what I'm doing, I've taught Ruby everything she knows. She's been learning the ways of the forest since she was born." Internally Qrow nodded to himself. He had no idea what he was saying, but that usually meant that he said something right. If it worked for the past eleven years, there was no reason to change the formula.

After hearing Qrow's answer, the man nodded with a look of realization in his eyes. "Of course, how could I have been so stupid?" At this point the rest of the men in the room had regained a bit of their courage and were no longer cowering in the smallest corner they could find. Despite this, they still kept some of their confusion. They had no idea what their friend was talking about.

"I was such a fool! Of course Master Ruby would be fine on her own. She's your daughter af-"

The dull thud of a heavy impact resounded through the room. Before any of the men could register what happened, they heard a shriek that sounded just like their fanatical friend and immediately went back to hiding underneath their own arms and whatever they could find.

The braver and curious ones in the bunch looked around the room trying to find the source of the sounds. Scanning the area, they quickly spotted an almost feral looking figure kneeling on top of another man pushing his head into the ground aggressively. Qrow only seemed to push the man's face harder into the glass covered floor the more he cried.

"Now listen here," he growled. "Ruby is not my daughter." His tone of voice became harsher by the word.

"If you, or anybody in this entire village thinks they're so clever and assumes that the girl is mine, then the Grimm won't be the thing you should be fearing."

Pushing off the man's head he stood up and faced the cowering group. "Send someone to the Duke of Patch by tonight." The man on the ground whimpered as he clutched at his cut up face. Qrow kicked him in the gut as a response.

Qrow stormed out, kicking the door open as he went. He continued walking until he was hidden from the eyes of the town and let out a large sigh.

Looking down at his hands, he was surprised to see blood. At first he thought that he had cut himself on broken glass, but after examining his fingernails he confirmed that he just clenched his fists too hard. Even after eleven years, it looked like that was the one lie he didn't enjoy telling.

Doing some light stretching as he walked to the forest, off to retrieve the scythe that he left leaning against a tree, he tried to forget what just happened.

If all went well, it would be one of the last times he would be able to do his job. He might as well enjoy it.

* * *

 **Wow this chapter was a bit of a pain to write, mostly because whenever I wrote, I recognized that it was taking time away from my Overwatch Beta time. I wrote around 80% of the chapter in three days so I apologize for the overall sloppiness.  
**

 **A lot of Jaune stuff this chapter relative to the other two chapters. Originally I was going to write around 75% of this chapter for Jaune and 25% for Qrow, but I just got carried away with writing the Qrow part and didn't want to make the chapter too long so there's that.**

 **This mostly applies to Jaune's story, but I just want to be done with this prologue-like section and get to the juicy bits. Unfortunately that's obviously not something you can do in a lot of stories and I'm not good enough of a writer to make world-building exciting. Ruby's side of the story is a bit more shrouded in mystery and stuff happening so I'm grateful for that.**

 **The Jaune story will pick up I promise. I originally wanted to write this story solely about him and I have a really neat ending in mind. Originally Pyrrha was going to be a sort of foil character with the same problems but in a different way, but then I realized I needed her to play an active role in Jaune's role so I made an entirely new story for Ruby. I don't have an ending for that one yet but I have a lot of fun scenes planned so be excited.**

 **In response to the anonymous review I got (thank you very much for the review by the way. I appreciated it very much), Jaune and Ruby are not integral to each others stories, but I do plan to have them play an important part in each others stories. I know it doesn't make sense, but I don't want to give spoilers and the only rough idea of how they're going to meet that I have may change anyways.**

 **In regards to my writing style, I'll give a hint on how to find hints to the story. Every single scene matters in some way. They give hints and clues to what is actually going on in the grand scheme of things. Some are completely obvious and some are barely even recognizable as hints. A few red herrings too. So if you don't like some of the scenes, know that I probably might like them either but they do serve a purpose though I can't guarantee each scene's usefulness.**


	4. Closure

A frantic knock on the door brought his attention away from his thoughts and his eyes away from his food. He got up slowly and motioned towards the servant standing by the door, curious about what could cause the messenger to be in such a rush to deliver this message. Considering that his only messenger was used to having to deliver messages about his daughter, he was a bit surprised that anything could phase him at this point.

As the door opened the messenger came rushing in. While the majority of the servants frowned at him, presumably for interrupting the Duke's meal, the man himself stood tall and his lips adopted the shape of a smile. "Gwyn, it's a pleasure to see you. I assume you have a message for me?"

The man struggled to keep a formal posture as he tried to catch his breath, causing the other servants to frown even more. He thought that it was strange for the messenger to be so out of breath. He wasn't expecting anything so the only things that the messenger could have to say would be information that he received at the front doors of the castle. It was a big castle, but Taiyang would have assumed that the messenger had ran a marathon from the way he was panting.

"Someone- someone from a small outback village came to the doors. The guards tried turning him away, but he insisted that he had a message that you would want to hear." The messenger finally caught his breath, and though he was not straight enough for the other servants to forgive his intrusion, he was able to speak. "One of the guards called for me and though I was about to send him away immediately, he showed me something that you would be interested in knowing."

He stretched his hand out as the messenger presented him with what looked like the seat of a roughly broken stool. The other servants seemed appalled that the messenger had presented the object to him with the sharp pieces of the pointing up at his face, but he didn't particularly care. Taking the wooden object, he flipped it over to read what it said.

 _She's here. She has it. Qrow._

He quickly hid the words from view. He nodded to the messenger. "Thank you very much Gwyn." The messenger bowed deep in response. The shape of a smile no longer on his face, he motioned for the servants to clean up the rest of his dinner and for the messenger to follow him.

He walked out of the room quickly with the messenger trailing behind him. "Gwyn, under the assumption that you would have never done something as stupid as letting whoever brought that here go, get him to tell you where he came from. After you do that, go to the barracks and tell the Captain to gather at least thirty of his most capable men and have them ready to leave by today." With a quick nod, the messenger ran down the hallway towards the entrance of the castle.

Ignoring the sounds of the messenger's echoing footsteps, he continued to walk down the hallways of his castle, but he had no idea where was going. He had no time to think about his destination when the issue at hand took all of his concentration.

He had no idea how to solve it but he knew he had to do something. There was a reason that Qrow had sent him that message and though he didn't know what exactly he wanted, he knew that he wasn't the type of man that could ever be ignored. The last time that he had done that, he almost lost everything. He clutched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

Taiyang wondered about how he would feel after seeing his once best friend for the first time in twelve years. He wondered if he would still want to kill him.

* * *

Qrow squinted as he raised his arm, trying to protect his eyes from the glaring sun. It wasn't too bright outside but to the hungover man, anything that stimulated his senses too much caused his head to pound uncomfortably. It had been a few years since he had gotten drunk enough for it to affect him the next morning, but the past few days had been rough to him. Along with the fact that he no longer felt the need to hold back in fear of draining the town's alcohol supply, he felt comfort in knowing that no matter what changed in his life, booze would still work just the same.

Grumbling to noone but himself, he peered out in the distance from his perch on the watchtower. Despite the dangerous nature of going up the sixty foot tall structure while he was drunk, he never even considered that he could fall off and continued to lean off the edge. At the edge of the village he could see a small group of people gathered there.

He didn't recognize most of them. The only one he cared about in the town was the pub's owner and even then he didn't bother remembering his name. A woman and her two children stood at the front of the group. He didn't recognize them but he assumed that they were the wife and children of the recently deceased man, by the way that the woman hugged the children close to her as she cried.

He was the one who had brought back the body for the funeral and the dead body had been on his mind ever since. He remembered the roughly cut up body, with deep cuts running through but just shallow enough so that the body parts weren't separated from each other in even quarters. He grimaced as he recalled the memory again.

"Man I'm getting sloppy with my job." Qrow mumbled as he leaned back, opening his flask and swallowing the entirety of whatever liquid he filled it with on his last visit to the pub.

With a satisfied sigh, he dropped his empty flask back into his pocket. He internally congratulated himself once again for discovering that the best cure for a hangover was to always be drunk and put his arm down, not feeling the need to shield himself from the harsh rays of the sun anymore. He stretched his body out for the first time since he woke up.

Turning away from the funeral, he gazed off into the distance. He saw nothing but the same empty plains that laid on the only side of the village that wasn't surrounded by forest. Though he knew that nobody could possibly be arriving for at least another day or two, he was still a bit anxious as he half-expected a small army to slowly come marching over the horizon.

He wouldn't admit to anyone that he felt a tinge of relief when he saw that the inevitable had not yet come.

Looking back in the opposite direction, he gazed at the forest that he had called his home for the last twelve years or so. His thoughts slowly wandered towards Ruby and he shook his head. He had already told her his last goodbyes. He had to focus on what was about to come.

He got up and stepped off the watchtower. If anybody in the village had noticed him they would have thought that Qrow simply vanished from sight, but nobody possessed the boldness to raise their heads after being so recently reminded of the death that surrounded them.

* * *

Ruby grumbled as she bent over the large wooden bowl and scrubbed a large white cloak. She normally looked at it with awe and desire, but now that she had it in her hands she struggled not to look at it with contempt. It was difficult to do but she managed by remembering the history of the cloak.

Qrow had told her that it had belonged to her mom. She often tried to get him to continue and tell her some stories about the amazing and beautiful woman that she had never met, but whenever she tried Qrow would lose the light in his eyes and simply stop talking. Ruby eventually gave up, deciding that she didn't need to know if it hurt Qrow to talk about it.

The only thing that she knew about her mom was the cloak. When she turned old enough to understand the value in objects, Qrow had shown her the only thing that her mom had left in this world besides her. He told her that she would have wanted her to have it.

Qrow had also told her never to wear it. He told her that its pure white colour would be ruined by the outside world. Ruby agreed, especially now that she was charged with washing it so thoroughly. She had never worn it outside, seeing as she had nobody she wished to show it to, but she regretted wearing inside the house on occasion. It looked beautiful and she loved wearing it, but each tiny stain only gave her more of a headache.

Realizing that she had stopped moving her hands as she thought about the cloak, she begrudgingly continued to try and scrub off one of the last stains she could see. In around half an hour, with a short break in between to stretch her hands out, she leaned in closer to inspect the cloak. Finding that it was spotless, she smiled as she found that she had already forgotten her hatred for it and could look at it with love once again.

Gathering it into a ball, she carried it a bit further away from the house to the small field nearby. It was one of the few spots in the forest that experienced exposure to the sun and their designated drying spot for their laundry. After slowly hobbling over to the clothing line, she struggled to drape the cloak over it as she took care not to let it touch the floor. With a great heave, she managed to hang it neatly and sat down to inspect and admire her handiwork.

Once again, she was reminded about how beautiful the cloak was. Qrow had told her it was made out of something called silk. She had never seen it before and she barely knew anything about it except for that fact that it was very heavy when wet, but even she could admire its beauty.

She usually went back to her home after hanging out her clothes to dry, but leaving something so precious out on its own seemed almost heretical. She didn't really care if her other clothes got dirtied by leaves on the wind or by a passing animal, but the cloak was obviously different. Mentally shrugging to herself, she found a comfortable position on the ground and sat down. She didn't mind waiting. It was a nice day outside and she had nothing else to do.

She grumbled a bit at that fact. She had been bored out of her mind ever since Qrow had left her alone in the cabin, and when he came back she had been so excited that she had someone to play with again. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Qrow had stopped by for less than a minute, literally only telling her to get the cloaked cleaned before the end of the day. He had brushed off her attempts at getting him to stay a bit longer by saying he had somewhere to be.

He seemed uncharacteristically uncomfortable, as if he was waiting for something bad to happen.

Ruby didn't even fully understand how she knew this, much less why he was feeling this way. She didn't want to say anything and she didn't know what she would say even if she did. Despite this she didn't like it when he felt bad.

So she gave him a hug.

She often gave him hugs, and he usually looked down at her and smiled. He often tussled her hair or flicked her forehead while grinning. This time Ruby didn't look up, afraid that she wouldn't see a smile for whatever reason. This time Ruby didn't feel the familiar hand on her head either and was instead surprised to find that Qrow had knelt down was hugging her back. They held the hug for a couple of seconds before Qrow let go, patting her head.

Ruby looked into his eyes and saw that he was smiling, but somehow it was the saddest expression she had ever seen on his face. Without a word he let go and left their home quietly.

Ruby shook her head. While she was washing the cloak she didn't have enough focus to think about Qrow, but now that she did she didn't know what to think.

It was like how she felt when washing the cloak.

At first she was angry at the cloak, but once she finished washing it she was reminded of how beautiful it was and she became happy again.

At first she was sad at how Qrow didn't play with her or barely even paid attention to her, but when he left she was given a rare hug so she was happy.

Also he smiled. She didn't really understand why she thought he looked sad. When you smiled that meant you were happy. Qrow was happy, so she was happy.

She smiled as she laid back in the grass.

Today was a good day.

* * *

It was very dark. The crescent moon was barely visible in the sky, often obscured from view by the passing clouds. The already frightened town didn't dare to venture outside. The darkness did nothing to stop the Grimm. Even with every home lit up with the glow of their hearths, the villagers shut out the outside world in hopes that their doors would hold if another Grimm attack happened.

Off in the distance a faint sound could be heard, steadily growing louder. Nobody in the small town could hear it yet, but the steady sound of hoof beats travelled through the empty fields.

Gripping the reins until his knuckles turned white, the young boy sitting in the saddle urged the horse to hurry, promising it a well deserved dinner and rest. The horse, unused to this rushed behaviour from its master, whinnied in complaint but sped up all the same.

Its master panted along with the horse, his emotions threatening to burst if it weren't for his intense focus on his task. He rode to the town with a hard determination in his eyes, and a giddy smile on his face. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt comfortable under the veil of nightfall, but in a rush of adrenaline and joy he had temporarily forgotten about the dangers that lurked in the darkness.

As he rushed into the village, he yelled as loud as he could. "Everyone! I have good news." He rode along the streets as fast as he possibly could, unconcerned about hitting anyone in the empty night. "Everyone! I have good news," he repeated. His smile only grew as he saw the people started to file out of their homes as the curiosity started to overtake the fear that once had a tight hold over his own heart.

He was forced to slow down as he rode around the village, seeing more and more familiar faces. It wasn't long before nearly everyone had gathered in the centre of the town, still nervous about being so vulnerable, but hopeful about what the good news was.

He had never been so proud before as he raised his fist from on top his horse and yelled at the top of his lungs. "The Duke of Patch is coming! The Duke of Patch is coming to our town to save us! He is bringing thirty of his best men to rid us of this curse that plagues our land!"

A moment of silence passed as he took a few seconds to catch his breath. A wave of sound hit him as the moment of shock passed and the entire village seemed to cheer as one. He joined in with the crying, the laughing, and the hugging as did everyone else.

It seemed like they celebrated for ages, but eventually the excitement died down. The smiles remained on their faces but the cheers, the shouting, and the sobs of joy died down as the villagers' throats became sore. The clapping however, didn't stop. The slow clapping of a single pair of hands echoed through the town.

He looked around, happy that someone was so enthusiastic about the news, but was confused to see that nobody was clapping and that others seemed to be as confused as he was. The claps still continued. They weren't loud by any means, but they seemed to travel far. Listening carefully, he pinpointed the direction of the sound and looked up.

A figure of a man stood on the rickety watch tower at the edge of the town square. The tower was around sixty feet tall, and the night was still dark. He could only see a silhouette slowly clapping over and over.

Noticing his gaze, more people turned to look at the shadow, curious about who it was. A couple of quiet murmurs could be heard through the crowd, but before anyone found the courage to ask, the clouds parted, freeing the light of the crescent moon above. Though the figure was still far away, the light now shone on him like a spotlight. He didn't recognize the figure personally, but a few people in the crowd apparently did. Whispers of, "Qrow" "Qrow" travelled to his ears and he looked up in awe and gratefulness.

He was the one who had brought the news about the duke and the thirty soldiers, traveling to their town, but Qrow was the one who brought them. He had risked life and limb to keep their town safe. The first of the heroes.

When he spoke, his voice travelled well despite the calm tone it had.

"I would congratulate you all for surviving this long to finally witness the eradication of the Grimm from your home." The sound of Qrow's claps continued to echo over the town. "I really do want to congratulate you, but unfortunately, your Grimm problem isn't over yet."

A few gasps could be heard as Qrow stepped off the watchtower and plummeted towards his death, but where everyone expected a dull thud and the cracking of bones, there was nothing.

A shout of surprise broke through the mumbling of the crowd. Qrow had reappeared behind the crowd, leaning on a large stick. A few people clapped in confusion, assuming that Qrow had executed a magician's trick.

With the moon at his back, his body cast a shadow over his features, hiding his expression. Not bothering to correct the crowd, he easily talked over the sound.

"I'm not one for big speeches. I know a speech would be appropriate seeing as this is probably a big point in your lives, but that's just not me. I know this is going to be a sudden change for you all, but life happens."

"Sorry everyone," he said, pulling the stick off of the ground. A small curved protrusion at the end created a silhouette that mirrored the crescent moon that shone behind him.

The young messenger frowned. He didn't recognize the object that Qrow held, though it seemed familiar. Qrow walked towards them slowly but approaching with an alarming speed, almost as if he was floating towards them. As Qrow got closer the shadows still covered his body, but the outline of his silhouette became clearer.

The crescent resting on Qrow's shoulder cast a twisted shadow as he approached. If the young man focused he could identify it as a scythe, but even then there was something strange about it. It had three blades set awkwardly in place, as if the creator haphazardly hammered the blades randomly into a sturdy stick.

Qrow came closer, making some of the townsfolk, including the young messenger, unsettled. Qrow came to them casually, as if he were just trying to pass through the town, until he stopped a few feet away from the edge of the crowd. His features were still obscured by an impossible shadow.

It all happened in the blink of an eye. One second, the scythe rested on Qrow's shoulder and in the next it was flying through the air.

It took a few seconds for the villagers to notice that two of their own were neatly cut up into even quarters. Even after they noticed, the shock and disbelief that coursed through the entire town was enough to stop them all from breathing. When Qrow took another step, the entire village erupted into chaos.

Nobody understood what had happened, but they knew that if they didn't run they would die.

The young messenger barely had any time to react when his horse started to bolt away, threatening to leave without him. Gripping the reins, relying solely on muscle memory, he focused his thoughts solely on "away."

And away he went. He stopped seeing the other villagers almost immediately, but he could easily hear the screams behind him. He paid it no mind.

His eyes frantically searched for "away" as he helplessly relied on his steed to know the best way out. Gripping the animal, he barely registered what was happening as the ground seemed to give out from underneath him. Not managing to dismount in time, he cried out in pain as the weight of the horse fell on his leg, trapping him. Hitting his closest friend and yelling at it to get up, he quickly realized that it was dead.

Three deep cuts threatened to separate the horses body into fours. There was no doubt that it died before it hit the ground, just like the people that died a few seconds before.

He thrashed around like a wild animal as he tried to escape the inevitable fate that approached him until heard a small noise.

 _Tap._

He looked over at his side to see a shadow standing above him. "Sorry," it said without remorse. "I really don't want anyone leaving the village yet."

Mostly trapped underneath his horse, the messenger couldn't twist his body to look directly at the hero who stood above him. Instead he was able to notice that the man's shadow had its scythe raised and ready to strike. His strength left him as he accepted his fate.

A second passed. The only change he noticed at first was that his point of view had shifted and he was no longer looking at the shadow.

He was looking at the hero of the village now. For the first time that night, he could properly see the man's face now that the clouds had completely cleared.

Qrow was smiling at him. The young messenger drifted off to sleep, comforted by the fact that the protector of his village was so happy. He wasn't sure why, but he was too tired to think about that.

* * *

 **As I'm sure you probably noticed, there was no Jaune section in this chapter. I did write a Jaune section, but after rereading it the tonal differences between the Jaune sections and Ruby sections were just so jarring that I wanted to completely separate the two. I'll probably make a whole other story upload for Jaune's story and have this exclusively Ruby's storyline.**

 **I'll leave the first three chapters as they are for now, but I'll probably rewrite them once I develop Jaune's story a bit more. To be honest but that will probably not happen for a while. I like the idea of Jaune's story almost as much as I like Ruby's, but teenage angst is so frustrating to write even if I'm hyped for the story and ending that it leads to. Ruby's story is more evenly fun to write.**

 **I promise I'll revisit all the chapters I've written so far, maybe once I finish this prologue arc.**

 **I'm sorry if most of this story seems like I wrote it in one go, since that's essentially how I write, but once I edit and revise it should be a bit better.**

 **If you enjoy this story so far, thank you very much for enjoying it. I'll try my hardest to complete it eventually. No estimated date though.  
**


	5. Unfair (Pt 1)

**Disclaimer: This chapter is part of a RWBY fanfiction. Even if it may not seem like it.**

* * *

Petrus struggled to hold back his yawn as he lazily gripped the reins of his horse. Raising his hand to his mouth, he made a slightly audible sigh as he yawned. A few people turned to him to glare at him, but he payed no attention to them. To him, anyone who harbored a fear of the battlefield didn't deserve the tiniest bit of respect.

He could tell that the air was charged with a tension that he had never felt before, but he was no stranger to travelling into the unknown. It's just that unlike the others, he didn't let it bother him.

He sighed again as he looked towards the head of the group and the two people that were responsible for the nervous atmosphere that saturated the night. The Duke and the captain rode side by side as they lead the small army, dressed fully in armor and weapons at their sides. The two seemed to mirror each other.

Petrus frowned, as he usually did when he noticed the cowardice of the captain, and wondered why they were so serious. When the captain started to run around the Barracks with the Duke's lapdog by his side, he assumed that the city was being attacked or something serious had happened. When the captain had gathered the most skilled members of the guard Petrus grew even more excited, but when the captain revealed the details of the mission, Petrus's mood dropped.

Though he never explicitly said it, Petrus knew that they were headed to his old hometown, the place that he had left over a decade before. Ever since he left, he had been recruited into Patch's elite guard force and though he didn't really respect the captain's opinion on anything, he couldn't help but lift his head up high whenever he told him that he was the best archer that Patch had ever seen.

His arrogance grew along with the jealousy of his comrades, but he didn't really care. He wanted to become the best there was. Of course he planned to take over the position as Captain of the Patch Guard, but that wasn't even his final goal. If the guard ever started to hold him back, he told himself that he would probably leave to prove his skills elsewhere.

He was seriously considering it ever since he learned what their current mission was.

More than thirty men were gathered to fight one man.

He scoffed when he heard it and he scoffed as he remembered it, turning heads once again. He had figured that the captain was the one to make that ridiculous decision, but when he heard that the Duke was the one who decided on that strategy, Petrus seriously considered why he was still there.

The Duke was the only man that Petrus had ever admired. Despite being the owner of the golden throne, the Duke rarely ever sat in it. He often went out to battle with the rest of the guard and often patrolled his own streets, dressed as a common foot soldier. Petrus had once decided that the Duke was his ideal, but now he wasn't so sure.

He would've simply left right away if it was any other man, but Petrus decided to ride along for one last fight despite the uncharacteristic cowardice in the Duke's decision. He still respected the determined light in his eyes.

But this was still much too excessive. Petrus wondered what madness could cause the Duke to make such a dumb decision. He alone could take out a single man. He had a creed that as long as a man had eye sockets in his armor, he could kill him. He had yet to meet a person who could dodge a well-placed arrow.

He sighed again. This time the people around him didn't bother to turn around, figuring that it was pointless to try and give him warning looks. He lamented about how his hometown seemed to mock him even after he had left so long ago.

It was such a boring mission, suited for that boring place. In all of his years that he stayed, nothing exciting had ever happened there.

* * *

 **I realized that since each of my chapters are jumping viewpoints so often, I could just post each part separately instead of waiting on the whole thing. I like being able to post consistently rather than waiting on the entire chapter. One problem I know this method will have is that it will take away from the bigger picture and make it harder to see. This chapter in particular is a huge offender of that, and it literally mentions nothing RWBY based. I know that and I'm willing to suffer the consequences in order to have it more comfortable for me.**

 **Chapter sections will not be of equal length. Some chapters, like this one, will be obscenely short while the more important scenes will be longer.**

 **I want to emphasize that my method of writing will not be changed in any way and that I'm just changing my method of posting. This method of posting will be unique to this story since I am able to apply it to its jumpcut-like nature and will not translate to my other story or future stories.**

 **If you enjoy my story, thanks. Sorry if this method of posting is weird.**


	6. Unfair (Pt 2)

Qrow squinted as he strained his eyes from atop the watchtower. From his higher point of view, he could see a flag poking out from just barely past the horizon despite the dim light of the broken moon. He scoffed at the sight and raised a bottle of liquor into the air. "Sorry, Tai. Some of your men will die tonight," he said softly. "The least I can do is have them die by a human's hands."

He drained the bottle, giving a slight shudder as he did so. Wiping his mouth of the drops that he couldn't get in, he set the bottle down gently. As he stretched out enough to hear his joints pop, he peered over the edge again. At this point he could see the vanguard of the small group that approached the village.

He chuckled when he realized that his old best friend was still stubbornly placing himself at the front lines like always. He was about to start reminiscing about the times when they had both snuck into the barracks, disguised as regular guards, but he shook himself away from those memories. Losing his smile, he forced his face to adopt a cheeky grin and stepped off the watchtower.

He stepped down lightly onto the top of the gate at the edge of the village. As he watched as the small army approached, he reached for his weapon, but realized that he had left it at the top of the watchtower.

He slapped his face and berated himself for forgetting his scythe. Sighing, he decided that he would get it once he made his initial introduction. He could pick it up easily, but he grumbled at the fact that his first impression would be slightly ruined.

He waited and watched, a little less comfortable than he would have been if he had his scythe to lean on, as the army came at full speed, no doubt troubled by the sight of a couple of dismembered bodied that lay across the road. He noted with a little pride that Tai seemed to notice him on top of the city gates and tried to signal the rest of his army to slow down and ready their weapons.

He watched as Tai and the rest of his army stopped to look up at him, each of them squinting to see whether he was indeed the man they were looking for. After a few seconds of waiting, the stout man besides Taiyang shouted up to him, "We are an armed force from Patch. We have heard the request for help from you village and have come to aid you. Identify yourself."

A few seconds passed before Qrow remembered that they couldn't see him in the dark, and that even Tai wouldn't have been able to recognize him though he was sure that he would be smart enough to know it was him. He would have also berated himself for ruining his entrance even further by not announcing who he was immediately, but it was overcome by the surprise of hearing the voice of the armoured man besides Taiyang.

He couldn't stop himself from chuckling despite having wanted to make this a serious encounter. "Really Tai," he called out. He noticed that Tai had tensed up a bit as his suspicions were confirmed. The soldiers around him seemed to pick up on this and had similar reactions. "I wanted to make a whole speech and everything to make me seem more threatening, but you decided to bring this old bag here? How can you take him seriously after countless amounts of pranks we put him through. Ah, you're a hilarious guy you know that?"

Taiyang looked back at him with a stone-faced expression, refusing to reply. Qrow wanted to look into his old friend's eyes and see some form of emotion, but stopped searching quickly to get back to the task at hand.

"Tai, Tai, Tai," Qrow continued. "You really came huh? Oh and you brought friends too? Why'd you bring these guys? Do you not like them or something?"

"Qrow Branwen, we have come to apprehend you for your past sins against the royal family and your current sins against the people of our land," the armoured man said, interrupting Qrow's string of mocking questions.

"Oh is that what you're here for fatso?" Qrow asked, switching his attention. "I could've sworn that you were here to have a picnic of some sorts, because that's all I could see this ragtag group of children accomplishing. You couldn't have brought actual soldiers with you?"

He could see that his words caused a bit of a stir. If he looked closer at each individual face, he could see mixtures of annoyance and anger, assumedly from the way he mocked their respected leaders. He wasn't surprised to find fear absent from all of their faces however. He planned to change that.

"Well, I guess we shouldn't wait any longer. Let's get started shall we?"

He watched as a few of the soldiers braced themselves at these words and Tai started to bark orders to try and get his men into the best possible formation against him. He knew that Tai knew that it would be useless, but he respected that he was trying his best.

As he dropped off the gate, a few of the soldiers tensed up in expectation while a few of them looked like they expected him to break his bones. He didn't blame them for thinking that. It was a decently high drop and he had a very scrawny figure.

Appearing in the middle of them, standing upright on top of an unfortunate soldier's horse, nobody except Tai had reacted or even noticed his presence. He calmly reached down for the soldier's neck, even as he watched Tai's dagger flying at him, and snapped his neck with an almost gently touch. Looking up at the knife that was almost in his eyes, he reached up and grabbed it out of the air.

"Woah Tai, that's a new trick," he said as he twirled the knife in his hands. Less than half the soldiers had their weapons raised as they struggled to register what had just happened. A second before, Qrow had been on the top of the gate and now he was amongst them, casually standing on the horse of a dead man.

"It was a bit dangerous of you to do something like that in such a crowded place though," he continued as he amusedly noted the frantic and confused movements of the soldiers around him. "What if I didn't catch that? It might have ended up in somebody's eye."

Without turning his body, Qrow threw the knife behind him into the face of the brave soldier who was moving to pierce through him with his spear.

"Kind of like that."

The reaction was quicker this time but before anyone could attempt another attack, Qrow had stepped off the horse and was gone. The soldiers looked around in a panic, expecting another attack from an unknown direction. "Calm down soldiers." Their captain's voice rung through the night, but it was quite obvious that even he was shaken by what had just happened.

"Yes calm down everyone." Qrow's voice echoed through the empty town and though they all heard it, they didn't see him anywhere. "It would be such a shame if you broke so easily."

The soldiers couldn't seem to locate the source of the voice as they looked around without direction. Only Taiyang seemed to be staring at the moon with a resolute look in his eyes. "What do you want Qrow," he said. At this point, some of the soldiers had followed his gaze to see a small silhouette on top of the watchtower in the center of the town. "Are you going to kill me tonight?"

Despite the volume of Taiyang's response, Qrow seemed to have no trouble hearing it. "No, Tai. I'm not going to kill you," he said as he tapped his scythe on the roof of the tower. Both his voice and the clang of metal on stone seemed to travel impossibly far onto the ears of the small army. "I hate you too much for that."

"I'm going to let you live, Tai. I'm just here to remind you that at any time, I can decide not to," he said as he leaned against his scythe. "I'm going to enjoy watching your expression as I take the lives of your men, just like I took your wife, and just like I took her child."

If the soldiers had been paying attention, they would have noticed that Taiyang had briefly shown an expression of surprise for the first time in the night. Qrow gave a sigh of relief when Tai had followed it up with a face of realization and grim determination.

"Oh yes, Tai," he said in the most taunting manner possible. "It's a shame that your precious Summer Rose died so young, but at least she left one treasure in the world. A treasure that I have and you don't. Her poor little girl, stuck to live with her mother's kidnapper her whole life, never to meet the rest of her family, abandoned all alone by her father."

"Poor Ruby… Rose."

* * *

 **Fun fact. The nickname that I have for Qrow's three-pronged (pronged? sided? bladed?) scythe is "Oh baby, a triple." Also I typed this entire chapter in around 3 hours since I was let out of work early and my school library was nearby.**

 **Also looks like the section thing is working. The end result will probably be a bit messier, but overall I think this higher rate of posting is more fun for me at least. Though now that I think about it, most people don't check FF daily so the double post might go unnoticed. Just in case you haven't noticed, this is part 2 of chapter 5.**


	7. Unfair (Pt 3)

The boy struggled to hold back a whimper as he struggled to keep a tight grip on his bow. Raising his hand to his mouth, he made a slightly audible yelp as he felt another drop of warm blood hit his forehead. A few people around him did the same, but he hardly noticed. To him, nothing existed except for the ferocious creature that mowed them down effortlessly.

The air was heavy with a sense of dread that he had never felt before. He had never seen anything like this, and he still couldn't fully believe that his comrades were dying around him.

He could barely hold back a cry as he looked towards the watchtower at the center of the town and the thing that was responsible for the death that saturated the night. The Duke raised his sword as he tried to rally his army, calling for shields to be raised, weapons to be held at the ready, and for arrows to be shot at the silhouette that stood under the broken moonlight. The Captain on the other hand, was dead with his upper body on the ground and the rest still sitting on his horse.

The boy paled at the sight, as he was reminded of the Captain's words. While he didn't believe them at the time, he regretted not trusting in the Captain's serious expression. He struggled to remember the details of the mission debriefing. It was hard to blame himself for not taking the Captain seriously. The stout man spouted nonsense about how the man they were hunting had power equivalent to the mythical creatures of Grimm, the dragons of legend, and the heroes of old. The soldier, in his frantic state of mind, started to blame himself for not believing in him, though he knew that it wouldn't have made a difference.

The boy looked around the town despite his fear of the creature, or maybe his fear had destroyed his mind. Whatever he decided was the case, he couldn't help but look around and lament at the sight of his old home. What good was being the best archer that Patch had ever seen if he wasn't good enough to protect anything?

His sudden sense of defeat grew as he looked over at his comrades, his grip loosening as he started to view the fight as being pointless. He wanted to become the best there was, but that was impossible. He was going to die, knowing that there were monsters in the world.

Only thirty men were gathered to fight this monster.

He scoffed when he heard it and he scoffed as he remembered it. He had figured that the captain was the one to make that ridiculous decision, but when he heard that the Duke was the one who decided on that strategy, the boy seriously wondered if the Duke had brought them here as a sacrifice to the gods.

He would've simply left right away if it was any other man, but the boy held a small bit of hope that the Duke had not led them there to die. He had heard of the Duke's strategic mind and courage. He still respected the determined light in his eyes.

But this was still much too excessive. The boy wondered what madness could cause the Duke to make such a dumb decision. He wasn't sure if the entire armed forces of Patch could make the creature break a sweat. He had a creed that as long as a man had eye sockets in his armor, he could kill him, but this creature was obviously not a man.

He sighed. Nobody turned around, too busy with looking towards the watchtower to hear anything. He shook his head at his destined death. Even if he hadn't left and joined the Patch guard, he would have just been another death in his village.

He nocked an arrow on his bow and let it fly towards the watchtower. He watched unexcitedly as the arrow flew towards the silhouette on a collision course with its head. The silhouette vanished and he felt another drop of blood hit his face. He turned his head, but could only catch a glimpse of the creature as it stepped off of his neighbor's horse and disappeared.

He didn't scream. He saw it as a waste of energy. Some of his neighbors obviously didn't think the same.

Somewhere deeper in the woods, Ruby was standing in front of the large mirror in Qrow's room as she twirled around and admired the beauty of the white cloak around her neck, taking extra care to not let it touch the ground.

She suddenly heard a dull noise coming from the side of the shack. Frowning, not enjoying the fact that her first fun activity in a week had been interrupted, she went outside to investigate.

She walked backwards towards the source of the sound, protecting a majority of the cloak in her arms, just in case some dumb animal had hit the wall. She didn't want the animal to run into her next and rub off its dumb animal dirt and smell onto the pure white cloth.

As she turned the corner, she was surprised to see that an arrow was sticking out of the shack. Walking up to it curiously, she tapped it with her foot. It didn't budge. She tried tapping it again, but it refused to fall off. Looking down at her occupied hands, she decided to ignore it until she took off the cloak.

Before she walked away, she looked at it once again. It was an arrow, alright. She had seen enough of those to identify it immediately. She shook her head and internally reprimanded the villagers for playing with such dangerous tools. If she had been outside when that arrow landed, her cloak might have been ruined.

Looking over to the direction of the village, she couldn't help but shake her head. She knew it was the Spring festival, but it was still a bit to late to be yelling and screaming. Some people probably had their sleep rudely interrupted by the celebrations.

* * *

 **I didn't plan for this chapter to be like this but hey, that's the fun of not planning things out thoroughly. Also it allowed me to do a lot of writing without actually writing much.**

 **Also wow, three parts in three days. Actually I wrote part one over the course of a few days, and I basically didn't have to think while I was writing this one out, but still. Technically one part per day. There's probably going to be one more part to this chapter. I hope to make it longest out of all the parts.**

 **I'm craaaazy. Someone stop me.**

 **Also should I change the rating to M? I don't know whether this thing would classify as a T rating. I mean there's bisected bodies but no description. I've seen video games rated T where people are cut in half, but I know writing can't hide behind it being cartoon violence. If anyone has any strong opinion on this, feel free to DM me and let me know.**


	8. Unfair (Pt 4)

**Yeah, this thing definitely deserves a M rating. I don't think this story will ever have any sexual themes, but this chapter in particular is a bit dark and future dark things might come in the future.**

* * *

Qrow drew a sharp breath as he disappeared from sight, along with the top half of one of the soldiers' bodies. Reappearing on the watchtower yet again, he stumbled to one of the walls. He panted hard and with a shaking hand, drew his flask out from his pocket and drained the entire thing in one swig. The alcohol stung his throat and burned his tongue as it traveled down his throat, but he didn't stop until it was emptied into his stomach.

His vision cleared and he was finally able to take a good look at the battlefield. His heart sank after seeing that almost half of the horses below had no rider, and the ones that were still alive were mostly frozen in fear with silent tears streaming down their faces. Resisting the urge to bang his head against his scythe in frustration, he hardened his gaze. It couldn't be helped. He had to accept that it happened and move on with the plan.

He was a bit scared of how easy that was to do.

"Taiyang Xiao Long, it's such a pleasure to know you. Just by existing as a plaything that I can torment whenever I want, it makes my life a little more colorful," he said, making his voice sound as cruel as possible. "I've already killed your wife, your men… what's next? Let me think… oh of course." He slapped the palm of his hand onto his forehead.

He cringed at his own words. Despite the tension in the air, he couldn't help but be embarrassed at his terrible acting. Thankfully enough, the only ones who weren't too terrified to realize this were Taiyang and himself.

"Your wife's little daughter."

Stepping off the watchtower, he blinked and felt himself disappear again. When he opened his eyes again he was back hom-no… he was back at the shack deep within the woods.

Breathing out and gripping his scythe, he prepared to finally let go of his selfishness and give the girl a chance to become something. He sincerely hoped that whatever path she took, it would be one that she had chosen for herself and that she would be happy. He didn't want the girl to follow in his steps.

He kicked open the door to the girl's home, causing it to fly off its hinges. It took him a small instant to realize that a short sword was at his neck. He looked down at his attacker in the same instant that she looked up at him as he felt a sharp pain hit his chest. She looked exactly like her. Now that she had signature her white cape, it was impossible not to think it.

Deadly eyes turned friendly once the girl realized who had just kicked down the door to her house. "Qrow? Why did you open the door like that? You scared me a bit," she said as she lowered her sword, gently placing it back into it sheath.

Biting his lip and reminding himself that he had already said his last goodbyes, he looked down at her with hard eyes and braced himself for the coming self hatred.

Grabbing the young girl's hair, he pulled her up into the air. She yelped in surprise and pain. "Qrow?! What are you doing?! You're hurting me!" she yelled.

Qrow turned his head around to not look at her, but he could still feel her hands grabbing at his own, trying to pry his fingers loose.

Stepping outside, Qrow found himself standing on top of the gates of the city wall, a few meters away from where the remainder of the army was still staying in shock. From what he could remember, nobody had moved a muscle until he came back from his brief travel, but the new sounds of a young girl's screams seemed to shock them out of their trance.

In his hand, Ruby still hung by her hair, begging for Qrow to let her go. Knowing that he wouldn't have been able to refuse her, he chose not to listen instead.

"Here she is Taiyang. Ruby Rose, in the flesh," he said as he held out his arm, threatening to drop Ruby from his perch.

"And here he is Ruby," he said to her, trying his hardest not to look at her reaction. "You see this man here, Taiyang Xiao Long? He's your father." Though he couldn't see her expression, he felt her struggling start to stop. Grimly, he continued.

"Taiyang Xiao Long, husband of Summer Rose, your mother who I kidnapped and killed. Taiyang, the man who loved your mother so much, but despite trying to protect her with his own life, I just didn't let him." Ruby stopped screaming. From the way her head turned slightly against his grip, he could tell she was looking at Taiyang.

"I made it my mission to destroy Taiyang by destroying everything he loved. Unfortunately for you, this includes you."

"Taiyang Xiao Long, the honourable man who would give up his life to protect his daughter, Ruby Rose. Fated to lose a treasure in his life once again once I take it from him."

Lifting his scythe to swing down at Ruby's neck, he braced himself. He knew what was coming and wasn't looking forward to it. He swung down his scythe as hard as he could in a well practiced fashion, only to feel the weight drop from his hand and a sharp blade pierce his side.

Giving a short cry of pain, he let go of the scythe and Ruby's hair and instead chose to swing a fist at her instead. Obviously not prepared for this instant counter and with her only weapon stuck in his side, Ruby took the blow to her temple, staggering backward, but still conscious.

He stepped backwards, dizzy from the unfamiliar sensation of being physically injured, and stumbled off the edge. The soldiers braced themselves as they looked around, cautious of where Qrow was going to reappear, but this time he fell at the complete mercy of gravity.

Rotating his body so he could just barely land on his feet, he sprung up with a surprising vigor towards Taiyang. To even his surprise, a white and red blur moved to block his path, but he instinctively lashed out. Before his fist connected with flesh, he managed to redirect his attack, grab Ruby's leg, and fling her out of his way.

And in the next instant, he was standing in front of Taiyang, with his hand around his neck.

Leaning in, he whispered, "if she becomes like me, I'll do it for real next time," and he disappeared from sight.

Reappearing somewhere else, he didn't exactly know where, Qrow reappeared and gripped at the pain in his side. Pulling the sword out, he lay on the ground and panted hard. He reached for his flask as the sword fell with a hard thud beside him. Upturning the flask, he groaned as he remembered that he had emptied it minutes before and put it back in his pocket, reaching for the sword instead. Taking a good look at it, he took a moment to wipe it off before he braced himself for more pain. He hoped he wouldn't get an infection.

* * *

Taiyang stood frozen as he looked at the sharp rock that was held inches from his face. If Qrow hadn't disappeared so quickly, he had no doubt that the makeshift weapon would have pierced his body, but instead, Ruby's unwavering hand stopped itself when she realized that her original target was gone. The soldiers around him stood frozen as well, not knowing what to say or even think about the bizarre situation.

Nothing happened for a few seconds, and when Ruby casually stood up straight and tossed the rock aside, the soldiers collectively flinched. Holding their weapons at the ready, they watched as Ruby, despite the annoyed swaying of the horse she was standing on, kept her balance and stared Taiyang directly in the eyes. Her expression was one of curiosity, seemingly ignorant of the stress of the soldier's around her.

"Would you really protect me, Taiyang? Even if you have to die?"

To the amazement of his soldiers, Taiyang simply replied with, "You can call me Dad, Ruby."

A short moment passed before Ruby nodded her head in acknowledgement. "Okay," she said as she spun around and promptly sat down on the horse, leaning with her back against his armored chest.

Taiyang let out his breath for what seemed like the first time that night. It looked like he had just gained a very powerful ally.

* * *

 **Prologue end**

* * *

 **And there you go! Originally I planned to have this chapter section a lot longer to have Qrow and Ruby fight more, but it actually hurt me in ways that I didn't expect to write about a little girl having the shit kicked out of her. Not saying I expected to enjoy it, but I guess I didn't think I would feel so deeply for things I'm writing.**

 **Sorry if literally everything is confusing. I meant it to be. It'll be explained in the future but for now, enjoy the sense of not knowing what the hell is going on. Unless you can guess what this is leading up to. I'll PM you if you're right.**

 **Also, quick note about the messiness of this entire thing. This writing process is unique in that I have a general plan and a few planned scenes in mind, but otherwise I'm going in blind. I'm essentially writing this without editing or taking back anything I wrote previously.**

 **That being said, I know that it's a hideous mess and I plan to fix it "eventually." I just don't know when that eventually is, but I know it's necessary. I know that from what I've wrote so far, even after moving all the Jaune stuff into a different story, I could probably cut 2/3 of the story and have it read better while not taking away any necessary information. Look forward to that "eventually."**


End file.
